
Book 




v/*<y JtZ.TlTiaZoi, 



REPORT 



ON 



THE PROPERTIES AND DOMAIN OF THE 
CALIFORNIA WATER COMPANY, 



SITUATED ON 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE: 



I M BR AC] N <• 1 u I 



MINING, WATER AND LANDED RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY, 



K k r \V | KM T II K 



South and Middle Porks of tlie American R 
in E3 Dorado County, ( California, 



A MOS BOWM A N 



S VN P B ANIMSCO: 

A. L. BANCROFT ANJ> COMPANY. 
1874. 



55723 






T> the Directors and Stockholders of the California Water 
Company: 

Messbs. J. P. PIERCE, 
J. O. EARL, 
IS.WC r, DAVIS, 
EGBERT Jl IDSON, 

J. S. DOE, ETC., ETC. 

(',< nth men: By desire of the Ex •■• itive I Officers of your 
Company I devoted ten weeks in the field during Jane, 
July, and November qf this year to an examination of 
the Resources, Geography, and Property Developments 
of the country commanded by the Ditches of the Cali- 
fornia Water Company, an area oi aboul one thousand 
square miles, situated between the South and Middle 
Forks of the American, commonly known as the ( George- 
town Divide, the results of which are appended. 

The conditions of the undertaking, it is proper to 
remark, necessarily and unavoidably delayed the publi- 
cation of this report ; owing chiefly to the circumstances 
which rendered it impossible for me to give the subject 
my continuous and undivided attention. 

My acknowledgments, and the thanks of the Com- 
pany are duo to James P. Tolman, C. E., of Boston, 

volunteer assistant in the field. 
Respect full V, 

AMOS BOWMAN. 



CONTEXTS 



I. TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT 6 

II. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 7 

(a) Salient Features 7 

(b) Geography 9 

(c) Mountains 10 

(</) Erosions 13 

(c) Fores! Distribution and Climate 14 

(/) Rain and Snowfall 17 

(.7) Seasons 19 

(//) Rain Zones 20 

(0 Winds 21 

(/) Temperature 21 

(k) Discharge of Rivers 22 

III. minim; 25 

1. Mines owned by. Cal. Wateb Co 25 

2. Yield of Gold Mines 26 

(a) Beam Diggings 26 

(6) Quartz Mines 29 

(c) Placer Minos 30 

3. CnAi;A("ri:i;isTics OF MlNES 

Ophir District 31 

Pilot Hill 32 

Neighborhood of Greenwood 33 

Spanish Dry Diggings 47 

Dutch Creek and Kelscvs 55 

Vicinity of Placerville 66 

Upper Johntown, etc 70 

Georgetown 72 



IV CONTENTS. 

Georgia Slide 74 

Bald Hill, etc 77 

4. Extraction and Reduction .' 79 

(a) Combined by New Methods 79 

(6) Principles observed in Underground Exten- 
sions 81 

(c) Principles observed in Seam mining 82 

(c?) Do seams continue or unite in depth. ? 83 

(e) Reduction by concentration and chlorination 84 
(/) Average Mining, Milling and Yield in '61. 86 
(g) Tabular Exhibit of Mining, 1873 86 

5. Gravel and Placer Mines 87 

1. Georgetown Divide 87 

(a) Mt. Gregory Ridge 88 

(6) Ridge Parallel 90 

(c) Head of Otter and Canon Creeks 92 

(d) Other Gravels 95 

2. Gravels of Placerville Divide 96 

3. Gravels of Forest Hill Divide 97 

7. Copper Mines 100 

8. Iron 101 

9. Cinnabar 102 

10. Limestone Quarries 102 

IY. GEOLOGY 104 

1. Generalizations locally applicable to Min- 

ing 104 

2. Vein System, their origin and relations 106 

1. Structure of Sierra Nevada related to min- 

eral belts 106 

2. Systems based upon strike in slate forma- 

tions 110 

3. Contents of veins in different formations. . . .115 

4. Systems typified by districts, or causes and 

results 118 

5. Points applying to Georgetown Divide 119 



CONTEXTS. V 

3. The Country Rock or Matrix 121 

1. Geographical Outlines and Relations 122 

2. Historical position of the Slates 122 

3. Stratigraphy 126 

4. Mineral Contents of Veins 142 

4. Superficial Deposits 158 

V. WATER 164 

1. The Demand 104 

2. Tin: Si rpPLY 105 

3. Storage 100 

4. Condi < ti<>\ by Ditches 173 

System 17:) 

Hast of Georgetown 175 

West of ( teorgetofi d ISO 

B. Measurement i x -"> 

6. Evaporation and Seepage 187 

7. AiM'i.K ation to Mining L89 

'.). Power fob Mining and Milling 193 

10. Application to Agriculture L95 

11. Sacramento City Si iti.y 199 

12. San Francisco Water Supply 200 

13. Application to Mam \m tubers 201 

VI. OTHEB RESOURCES. 

1. Timber 204 

2. Manufacturers' Stand-point 205 

3. Agriculturists' Stand-point 2<», 

4. Communications 208 

VII. FINANCIAL AND STATISTICAL. 

1. Other Property of the Company 210 

2. COSI «»f Materials ' 211 

3. El Dorado Co. Statistics 211 

A III. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

1. Situation 211 



VI CONTENTS* 

« 

2. Advantages 216 

3. Operations 216 

4. Partial Execution of Plan 217 

5. Development of Mining Properties 218 

6. Policy in regard to Agriculture 219 

7. Sacramento Valley and City 220 

8. Policy in regard to Extension 221 

9. Manufactured Products 222 

10. Possibilities 223 

11. Yarious Suggestions 223 

12. Interest and Dividends 224 



INDEX TO FIGURES AND MAPS. 



Views: 

Fig. 1. Loon Lake and Summit Frontispi 

Fig. 2. General view of Western slope 9 

Diagrams: 

Fig. 32. Present and Pliocene Drainage 1(51 

Fig. 29. Axes of [Jplifl 108 

Fig. 24, (28.) Georgia slid,. d 71 

Fig. 27. Bald Hill .. --- 77 

Maps: 

Of Georgetown Divide, detail map at the end. 

Of Veins, general map: Fig. 33 86 

Of Ditches: 

Little South Fork and Loos Lake L68 

Main. Pilot Creek Bes. to Tunnel Bill L70 

Tunnel II. to Georgetown L72 

El Dorado Ditch, from Head to "The Born" . . 174 

" •• Horn to junction with Main L76 

Volcanoville Ditch 17s 

Main hitch, west of Georgetown, to Pollard's.. L80 

Kelsey Ditch L82 

" " Branch 

Bottlo Hill Ditch L86 

Jones 1 1 1 11 Ditch L88 

Bear Creek Ditch 190 

Clipper Canon Ditch 192 

Tables: 

Cordilleran Mineral Belts 115 

Gold and its Mineralizers in Solids and Fluids.. 144 

Philosophy of Actum causing Concentration.. . 152 

Ditch System 164 



Vlll INDEX TO FIGURES AND MAPS. 

Veins and Kesults of Mining 86 

Standard Miners' Inch 186 

Belative weight of Water and Dirt in yds. & tons 190 

Sections: 

Fig. 30. Stratigraphy of Sierra Nevada 134 

" 3. Eain Sections, east and west 17 

" 4. " " north and south 19 

" 5. Carroll Mine 34 

" 6. " " 35 

" 7. Nagler, or French 36 

" 8. " Cross vein 38 

" 9. " Cross seam belt 38 

" 10. St. Lawrence Seam Mine 42 

" 11. General Section Greenwood Creek. ... 43 

11 12. ximerican Mine 45 

" 13. Manley Mine 46 

" 14. General Section across System 47 

" 15, 16 & 17. French Hill, Spanish Dry Dig. 49 

" 18. Sliger Mine 52 

il 19. St. Lawrence Quartz Mine 60 

" 20, (25.) German Co. Placerville 67 

" 21, (19.) Quartz Hill 68 

" 22, (26.) Poverty Point 69 

" 23, (27.) Keefer, Georgetown 73 

" 25, 26. Georgia Slide Junctions 75, 76 

" 28. Mameluke Hill 96 

" 31. Dislocation Chimneys 149 

Grass Yalley Veins 128 



REPORT. 



I. TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 

I'll IY, MlN 

W K 

T N treating of the water rights, ditch properties, and B . |r 

the opportunities of the Oalif<»nii \\ i-.!- Company 
in general, I take the liberty of ring tin 

ti<»n in the broadest new, with all the advant iges it ap- 
pears to me to i d in urn 
I shall show, farther on, how near 3 ■ the poa 
don and control of a supply of water equal, for all 
practical purposes, and for oenturii I . 
Tahoe itself, as an availabt ; w hat 
steps must be taken to turn this supply t int; 
and iii the ase and application of the water you bring 
to market, 1 will not lose sight of it on its first applica- 
tion, but will follow it until it gravitates out of your 
possession in the levels «>f the Sacramento plains, or 
through the drains of Sacramento city. 
The market for water is considered primarily nn- m 

rkablfl 

der the head of mining. Without a thorough under- M 
standing of the various occurrences of gold, and the 
best data attainable concerning what are the work- 
able quantities of gold, as found by experience in 

each, it would be difficult for any one, and especially 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Physical 
Conditione. 



Charac- 
teristics of 
Mining. 



Benefiting 
from Ex- 
perience. 



Water 
Delivery. 



Resources- 
Statistics. 



a non-resident, to arrive at definite or business ideas 
concerning the situation, and in what manner to take 
advantage of its particular phases with success. 

Having dwelt briefly upon the physical geography of 
the Divide (which is fundamental to the operations of 
a Water Company), in Subdivision II, I accordingly 
furnish, in III, some detailed notes of the mines; and, 
in IY, facts of a broader yet no less practical bearing, 
touching their character and relations, whereby they 
may be intelligently compared with gold mines and 
mining operations elsewhere. 

Your own experience and that of others is made most 
of in this w r ay ; and various methods of successful 
mining, or successful dealing with water, or prosperous 
management in a purely business sense, other than 
those, perhaps, of mere local experience, may suggest 
themselves and receive your attention, and possibly 
furnish, or make clearer the key to the situation. 

The geological data observed, and presented in this 
connection, are original, and, it is believed, of some 
importance, looking toward a more thorough under- 
standing of the conditions of profitable mining on the 
western slope of the Sierra Nevada generally. 

The fundamental outlines of your field being thus 
disposed of, I proceed to consider, under Y, the in- 
strumentalities and the conditions of water supply, and 
the details of operations hitherto. 

Under YI are mentioned other resources of the do- 
main beside water and mines; and, under YII, statis- 
tical data of miscellaneous or general import. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. < 

II.PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

Salient Features, Geography, 

Mountains, Erosions, 

Forest Distribution and Climate, Kain and Snowfall, 

Seasons, Kain Zones, etc. 

(a).— THE SALIENT EEATUKES 

OF the region, from the stand-point of water supply, gatani^ 
are suggested by observing the existence of a series "fjeys* 1 
of natural reservoirs, of which Loon Lake is an exam- 
ple (being usually of glacial origin), situated in the 
drainage basins of the perpetual snows. Sometimes 
scooped out of bare rock to a great depth, and sur- 
rounded by low and scantily -timbered roche montonnee, 
these lakes are beautifully diversified by rich timber 
upon the detrital flats, the greenest and freshest of 
grass and other luxuriant mountain herbage upon the 
intervening meadows, and by the very peculiar topog- 
raphy of the enclosing moraines; such characteristic 
features of an Alpine history with colors of green and 
grey, being mirrored and mingled in rippled silence 
with the broad, white masses of the surrounding snow 
peaks. 

The depth of the annual fall of snow in this region is, J^ ecipi £ a_ 
by gauge measurement, 18 feet; or, reduced to water, Snow Line 
6 feet over the entire area (see rain sections below). 
And the " snow line," or contour of altitude at which 
the sun's rays, through the long dry season of summer, 
fail to bring this quantity of snow to the liquid state 
before the next season's snows pile on, may be set down 
at 7,500 feet above the sea. In some years, however, 
the snow remains lying below 7,000 feet; the snow line 
oscillating in periods of about ten years. 

The ice beds of the cold period of the Post Plioceene, 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Glacial 

Geography 
and Ditch- 
ing. 



Catchment 
Details. 



known as the glacial period, associated with the phe- 
nomena of these lake reservoirs, plainly extended much 
further down. The lowest points at which glacial 
gravel is observed in this Divide was below Forney's, 
about 5,000 feet above the sea; though at Bear Val- 
ley, near Emigrant Gap, on the C. P. R. B.., a glacier 
reached down to 4,000 feet above the sea. At very nu- 
merously repeated points, within a range of 2,500 feet 
of altitude, and over an area extending twenty -five miles 
west of the summit, Nature has laid out, for the great 
mining region, and valleys of the foot-hills, and plains 
of California, a noble system of reservoirs, into which 
an abundant precipitation pours during months in the 
dryest summer when it never rains. How admirably the 
glacial valleys and lakes of the region are adapted to a 
doubled and quadrupled catchment, with trifling labor 
when the natural dams have been partially broken, can 
scarcely be realized by persons not familiar with these 
stupendous works (as they may be called) of design. 
From ten to twenty miles of ditching connects them 
with the region where gold has been concentrating for 
ages, both on and under the surface; and thence down- 
ward, upon the western slope, the vine flourishes, and 
the orange blooms. 

The number, character, and capacity of these res- 
ervoirs on Georgetown Divide, and the necessities, op- 
portunities, and facilities connected with the water sup- 
ply at the disposal of the California Water Company, 
are treated of in detail under "Water, Subdivision V. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



(&).— GEOGKAPHY. 



%2 




d 


1 




d 

3 


°S 




3 


sg 


_d 

°oj 


3 


M ^ 




fl 


o O 


+3 


o 


"2 c« 
o bo 


d 




p 
o 

DO 


1*3 

«5 


! 


£ 
^ 
£ 


^5; 


bo 


£ 


a 


•F 


e3 


TS 


o 


& 


'3 


S 


k> 



o 

<B o3 O 
'gag 

o o o 

OS aa02 




The geography of the Divide, as represented in the Me * h ° d 
accompanying map, jwas obtained: at the western end, 
and as far as Gray Eagle Hill, by using the United 
States surveys, and locating in them the hills by solar 
compass bearings, triangulations, and by aneroid ba- 
rometrical altitudes; toward the east end of the Divide, 
by road traverse chaining, solar compass bearings, and 
triangulations from the mountains thus located and 
connected. 

A great deal of detailed topography was obtained 
which I had not the time to plot. 44 " The relief, as repre- 
sented, therefore, is only such as was required for the 
purposes of this report; picturing approximately every 
principal feature of the country, as far as my opportu- 
nity would allow. 



Belief. 



* With the plane table and camera lucida, by Capt. Daubissons' 
method, practiced in the topographical surveys of France. 



10 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Sfvide 6 ^ 1G s h° r( 3 of Lake Tahoe was obtained from the 

United States surveys; and the Placerville road and its 
vicinity, across Johnson's Pass, from the Placerville 
and Virginia Kailroad survey, of F. A. Bishop, made 
about twelve years ago. The neighborhood of Placer- 
ville was obtained from Bishop's ditch surveys. For 
useful material, both on the Placerville and Forest Hill 
Divides, so far as the map extends, I am indebted to 
Mr. L. A. Garnett. 

Ditches. The ditches of the Company and other local details 

connecting with fixed points, were obtained by pacing, 
with approximate or compass courses, and by "time 
trips," with compass or estimated courses. 

(c).— THE MOUNTAINS. 

SEVERAL SYSTEMS. 

Grand This portion of the western slope of the Sierra Ne- 

Features. 

vada does not differ materially from the characteristics 
of the range elsewhere. Situated nearly opposite, in 
the line of drainage of the mountain streams, to the 
outlet of Sacramento Yalley through Carquinez Straits, 
the eastern end of the county lies in a region showing, 
in the summit culminations and lakes, more strikingly 
than any other in the range, the tendency of the Sierra 
Nevada to split into northerly and northwesterly trends 
of mountains, characteristic of the entire Pacific slope 
west of the Eocky Mountains. The northerly trends 
are peculiar to the great plateau of Nevada and Utah, 
which extends across into California as far as Mount 
Shasta, embracing the greater portion of Lassen and 
Siskiyou counties. (See axes of uplift, under Geology, 
Subdivision IV.) 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 11 

SUMMITS. 

At the point where Georgetown Divide joins the 
summit, there are three summit ranges : 

1. Tell's Mountain range; 

2. The main, or Western summit; and — 

3. The Eastern summit, or Washoe range. 

The two western are the highest, being nearly the Thesnowy 
same height. But the most westerly range carries the 
most snow. Its summer stores of the aqueous element 
are never exhausted. Between the snowy Tell's Moun- 
tain range and the summit runs the Kubicon Biver, a 
stream very large in midsummer and autumn, consti- 
tuting the principal basin of drainage of the melting 
snows of late summer. 

THE WESTERN SLOPE. 

From a general altitude of 8,000 feet at its junction itsKegu- 

larity. 

with the crest of the Sierra, Georgetown Divide (like 
every other divide of the range) sinks gradually and 
with great regularity, in fifty miles of horizontal dis- 
tance, to an altitude of 175 feet at the margin of Sacra- 
mento Valley plain, near Folsom. 

Being nearest to the outlet of the Valley (Carquinez Erosions in 

a Sloping 

Straits), the rivers of this portion of the Sierra are Plateau. 
more deeply eroded, in proportion to the altitude of 
the range opposite, than elsewhere. 

Independently of erosion, the slates of the Divide, 
which are generally bare of volcanic or detrital matter, 
have maintained a certain average outline of surface, 
about ten miles in width, between the two great 
canons of the Middle and South Forks, remarkably reg- 
ular on top, in consideration of the extent of the erosive 
action to which the country has been subjected. 



12 GEOBGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Otter Creek, Pilot Creek, Little South Fork, and the 
Bubicon, on the north; Greenwood, Dutch, Bock, and 
Silver Creeks, on the south, are the principal lateral 
erosions. Yet they have scarcely been able to give a 
mountain character to the Divide beyond the imme- 
diate vicinity of the two great canons that bound the 
Divide. One hundred and fifty square miles of undu- 
lating country, below 2,500 feet altitude, are only here 
and there intersected by an abrupt branch of the prin- 
cipal canons. 

Fiats. And the country above Georgetown embraces many 

succeeding areas of fifty square miles in extent, com- 
paratively flat, or diversified by knolls and ridges that 
seldom rise over 500 feet. 

b?]^" 16 East of Loon Lake Basin the Divide assumes an 
Alpine character. The surface changes from glacial 
debris overlying the slates to perfectly bare, polished, 
glaciated rocks. The forests reappear only in the 
higher and less glaciated summits, on ridges where the 
soil was not removed by the ice beds, on account of 
their higher altitude than the glacial levels; or in val- 
leys, or moraine promontories of glacial detritus. 

PAKALLEL SWELLS. 

Taking in the western slope at a glance, there are ten 
parallel swells or corrugations of uplift, to the west of, 
and, in general, parallel with the main summit, viz : 
beginning at the west : 

1. The Pilot Hill trend of hills. 

2. The Goat Mountain or Greenwood trend, consist- 
ing rather of a dome of country formed by numerous 
parallel mountain ridges or erosions extending from 
Brown's to Greenwood — in crossing it from west to 
east. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 13 

3. The Spanish Dry Diggings and Kelsey trend, in 
which are situated some of the principal mines; repre- 
sented on the south side of the South Fork by the 
Quartz Hill range at Placerville. 

4. The Hotchkiss Hill trend ; another dome series 
of ridges or erosions, extending as far east as Works 
Kanch. 

5. Tunnel Hill and Gray Eagle Hill trend. 

6. The Sand Mountain trend. 

7. Eobb's Mountain trend. 

8. Tell's Mountain trend, sometimes called the Con- 
ness Range, being a spur of the main summit from 
Pyramid Peak. 

9. The main summit or water shed at Sugar Pine 
Pass. This is itself double, consisting of — 

10. The McKinney range, just west of the McKin- 
ney (now Miller) Milk Ranch; and, 

11. The Emerald Bay trend ; the two joining in 
Captain Dick's Mountain. 

12. East of Lake Tahoe is the eastern summit, or 
Washoe range. 

TRANSVERSE RIDGES. 

There is also a northeasterly and southwesterly trend 
of broken hills on this Divide, to which belong the Pilot 
Creek Eeservoir range of hills, leading up into Robb's 
Mountain range and Slate Mountain. In the latter the 
strike of the slates is correspondingly altered to a north- 
easterly and southwesterly direction. To this system 
belong also the Peavine Hills. 

(d).— EROSIONS. 

The gorges of the Sierra measure, at mid-slope, 3,000 
feet deep. At Forest Hill, the canon of the Middle 



14 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Fork is below the town 2,500 feet; below the top of the 
hill, 2,800 feet. At Deadwood, the canon is 1,600 feet 
deep. At El Dorado Canon, the river is 2,800 feet be- 
low the bluffs. 

Angle. The angle of slope in the latter canon is nearly forty- 

five degrees. The upper edges of the walls are only 
three quarters of a mile apart. Probably the average 
angle of slope is not far from thirty degrees. The 
streams are mere gutters at the bottom, one or two hun- 
dred feet wide. 

QuaSz S as a Under such conditions, when winter torrents rise to 
twenty, forty, and fifty feet above the usual level, flow- 
ing at the rate of six or eight miles per hour, carrying 
huge grinding rocks along with the water at the bottom, 
one can easily understand how these rivers were capa- 
ble of executing the titanic work of erosion we still find 
them engaged upon — under the condition of free erod- 
ing grades varying between fifty and one hundred and 
seventy-five feet to the mile. 

(e).— FOREST DISTRIBUTION AND CLIMATE. 

There are four zones of forest distribution, which 
may be considered as corresponding to agricultural re- 
gions : 

1. The Foothill Belt, west of Range 3, from 
Greenwood inclusive, to Pilot Hill, etc. It is twenty 
miles wide on Georgetown Divide. This belt is scant- 
ily covered with timber, chiefly black oak, frequently 
vast and spreading, with only scattering pines. Chem- 
isal and manzanita cover many square miles, in thick- 
ets more or less dense. 
Italian It is the Auburn and Smartsville zone. Yerv drv and 

Zone. J * 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 15 

hot in summer, it produces plenty of grass in spring, or 
when irrigated, and is horticulturally highly favorably 
situated. Firs are rare; the vine flourishes; in some 
places (as at Brown's), even without irrigation ; and 
peaches, apples, and other fruit are of the delicious fla- 
vor peculiar to the mountains. Almonds, walnuts, and 
oranges, in the lower altitudes, show in their growth 
and flavor every indication of congeniality of climate. 

This region is semi-tropical or tropical — Italian in 
its climatic features. 

2. The Lighter Timber Belt of Georgetown, cor- Virginian 

Zone. 

responding in situation to Nevada City. It lies, on this 
Divide, between the hill Ranges 3 and 5, from Green- 
wood to Grey Eagle Hill. Firs, yellow pine, and oaks, 
less spreading and taller than in the lower zone, be- 
side a variety of other trees, occur. The soaproot grows 
in abundance in the airy and sunny woods. Apple 
and other fruit trees flourish, after !being once rooted, 
without irrigation. The vine does well in general, 
but delicate varieties occasionally suffer from frosts. 
Grasses last later in the summer. Snow, in the winter, 
seldom lies for many days at a time. Here, as well as 
on the lower zone, the situation, whether in a canon or 
on a ridge, or of northerly, southerly, easterly or west- 
erly exposure, makes a great difference in the character 
of the vegetation. 

This region is semi-tropical or temperate— Virgin- 
ian in its climatic features. 

3. The Forest Zone proper of the Sierra Nevada. H udsonian 
Coniferous trees predominate. The luxuriance of these Big Trees. 
forests is unequaled in all the world. Each tree seems 

to express in its richness and individual perfection 



16 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

something like a sentiment of delight in its own exist- 
ence. It is the region of the Big Trees— between 3,500 
and 6,000 feet in altitude. Cedars abound, beside the 
universal firs and pines ; and numerous varieties of 
hardwood, some of which are tough and adapted to 
useful wooden manufactures. 

This zone of vegetation, extending from the hillEange 
No. 5 to Kange No. 7, covers a distance of about 
eighteen miles. Sugar pine (Pinus Lambertina) is plen- 
tiful. Wild plums and other berries exist. Manzanita 
is found only on exposed hill spurs, and chemisal brush 
on blasted slopes. 

It is temperate, or Hudsonian — corresponding to 
Hudson River — in its principal climatic features. 

4. The Summit Region Geneeally. It has the 
hardier firs and pines, which become brittle or stunted 
on the exposed or rocky ridges, yet continue to grow 
luxuriantly and of good quality, in groves and sheltered 
nooks, to an altitude of 8,000 feet. 
Canadian. The sugar pine, yellow pine, and Scotch fir are the - 
available lumbering material around Lake Tahoe. Wild 
gooseberries and raspberries are abundant. Alder- 
brush grows in the Alpine valleys, and white thorn 
brush on the exposed steep hillsides. The red snow 
plant shoots up like a column of fire out of the snow 
banks in spring. The earth is so suddenly blanketed 
by snow, in the fall, that it scarcely anywhere freezes. 
jGrrassy meadows around lakes of glacial origin continue 
green and luxuriant the summer through. Bunch grass 
is indigenous, on the westerly and southerly slopes, es- 
pecially on moraine ground; but it has been killed off, 
to a large extent, by grazing sheep. Potatoes flourish 



PHYSICAL GEOGKAPHY. 



17 



around Lake Tahoe. They are superior to any raised 
in the valleys of California. 

This region is Canadian in its principal climatic fea- 
tures. 

(/").— EAIN AND SNOW FALL. 

The average annual rain fall at Georgetown, as ob- 
served by Mr. McKusick, is forty to forty-seven inches. 
At Georgia Slide, a little further north, the same results 
have been obtained. At Placerviile, the result, as 
measured by gauge, is an inch or two less. The total 
precipitation at Georgetown for the last season, as 
measured by Mr. McKusick, was forty-seven inches. 



east 900 Miles. 



.■west. 



Rainfall 
Inches. 



Inches. 
Altit'de 



T "A 


ittaite, 


i< 


• 


i 


\l | -1 ' l 1 i 

■ i i i > 


T ^ rr ^l! 


1 


;| i i ! , i 


_ _ 


1 it 1 1 



C*CMr-li-l(M<M<NCOincO'— t- 



53 O OS 



US <M -* 



-* CO o 

co m io 
m m -* 



a 3 



3 3 



Cfi CO 



■S3 

o 2 
M <! 



W O CQ 



a * 



"S j§ 



7 000 ft. alt 
6,000 " 
5,000 " 



4,000 " 



3,000 
2,000 
1,000 



Fig. S--PACIFIC SLOPE RAIN SECTION. 

Showing the Rainfall in the Interior as compared with that at the Sea Coast; and also 
as affected by altitudes. For the rainy season from Aug. i, 1871, to May I, 1872,- 

2 



18 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



The Mount- 
ains and the 
Sea. 



Systematic 
Observat'ns 



Belief and 
Rainfall. 



Dry Places 
in Valleys. 



The accompanying rain section, based upon careful 
gauge observations (Fig. 3), shows the prominent char- 
acteristics of precipitation along the line of the ditches 
of the California Water Company, in comparison with 
the rainfall at sea level at San Francisco, and on the 
western slope of the continent generally, from the Pa- 
cific Ocean to Salt Lake. 

It is constructed for your information from measure- 
ments, made in 1871, under the direction of S. S. Mon- 
tague, chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, at 
the several stations named. .Those stations, situated 
on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, are so near 
to Georgetown Divide that the measurements are the 
same as they would be if they had been actually made 
along the line of your ditches. 

The remarkable correspondence to the relief of the 
continent, and the precise manner in which the rainfall 
is affected by altitudes, as well as by proximity to the 
sea, or to sea level, are graphically shown in an east- 
erly and westerly direction, or cross section. 

NORTH AND SOUTH, OE LONGITUDINAL VALLEY RAIN SECTION. 

The fundamental conditions of demand for reserved 
water, in the great valley opposite the Georgetown 
Divide, are graphically represented in the accompany- 
ing north and south section, Fig. 4. 

A curious departure from the strict rule of altitudes, 
as affecting the rainfall, is observable in the longitudi- 
nal valleys. "While the rainfall at Sacramento, oppo- 
site Georgetown Divide, increases over that at sea level 
near Suisun Bay, or Stockton, correspondingly with the 
altitude as represented, that of San Joaquin Yalley de- 
creases materially, notwithstanding the increased alti- 
tude. Adjacent mountain ranges or timber belts are 
probably the cause. 



PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY. 



19 



NORTH . 

Rainfall. 



.350 Miles south. 




Inches 



Altit'de 



Fig. 4— CALIFORNIA VALLEY RAIN SECTION, 
Along the line of the Oregon and San Joaquin Valley Railroads, 

for).— SEASONS. 

THE RAINLESS SUMMER. 

From May to August there is no rainfall worth men- Limits of 

J ° Dry Season 

tioning, or capable of measurement, on the western 
slope of the Sierra — nothing beyond a sprinkling. 

The dry season of the year in the Sierra is at its 
height in August and September. Until the end of 
September the water in Pilot Creek and Little South 
Fork basins grows less and less. By the first of Octo- 
ber, however, it commences to increase again from the 
new rainfall. 



THE SEASON OE RAINS 

In the lower zone is, as stated, from November to Mountain 
May. It corresponds to what, in the higher zones, is a 
similar season of very heavy and continuous rains. 

The streams in the canons then become terrific. The 
suddenness of the mountain floods is such that the 



20 



GEOItGETOWN DIVIDE. 



water rises in the narrow canons in a few days from 
twenty to thirty feet. 

Spring and autumn become definite seasons only in 
the high Sierra. 

(li).— EAIN ZONES. 

ACCORDING TO THE BEHAVIOR OF SNOW. 

No snow. The rain zones on the flanks of the Sierra correspond 

to the forest zones. The foothill belt shares the cli- 
mate of Sacramento Valley, which also grows spread- 
ing oak. Snow never falls, or only as a nine years' 

snow an wonder. No rain falls between May and November. 
The light forest zone has rain later in the summer — a 
shorter dry season. Snow lies, in winter, for several 
days at a time. The heavy forest zone has snow lying 
all ivinter through. The summit zone, per contra, has 

sunder. snow lying all through summer on the higher points, or 
even lower down; and so late into the summer as to 
stunt vegetation which is not favorably situated as to 
soil and sunshine. 

WATER STORED AS SNOW. 

Rationale There has never been a time, except in the last three 

Line. or four years, when there has not been old snow lying 

in Loon Lake Basin the summer through. Even in 
Pilot Creek Basin, at the head of Pilot Creek ditch, 
there "has always been snow T in summer heretofore," 
as I am informed. During recent years the snow fall 
has been light, and it has not accumulated. When the 
snow fall is heavy, the snow keeps on accumulating un- 
til there are heavy banks, and the same snow continues 
to lie for a series of years. 
F^odi The present winter being one of heavy snows, and 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 21 

low temperature, banks will probably form, and again 
accumulate for a series of years. Floods in the great 
valley are owing, therefore, to the high temperature ac- 
companying precipitation as much as to the rainfall of 
the season itself. Snow at the summit lies from ten to 
forty feet deep. 

Light summer showers, accompanied by thunder, are Thunder, 
characteristic of. this region. 

(i)— WINDS. 

The winds are ordinarily from the valley in the day- Northerly. 
time, and from the mountains at night. The foothill 
zone, like the valley of the Sacramento, is subject in 
summer to parching, often scorching, north winds. In 
the heavy timber zone, winter blasts from the east are 
sometimes very strong. In the summit zone, summer Southwest 
thunder storms, accompanied by light rains, come from erly ' 
the north; while the ordinary daily winds are, as in the 
lower altitudes, westerly and southwesterly breezes. 

(/)— TEMPEEATUEE. 

In the foothill zone the ice barely freezes on luinter Ice 
nights. In summer the thermometer keeps near one 
hundred degrees for many hours in the day. In the 
summit region, per contra, the ice freezes at Ward's Val- 
ley, opposite Lake Tahoe, on midsummer nights. 

At Georgetown, near mid-slope (altitude twenty-five Thermome. 
hundred feet), the thermometer has been observed by 
Mr. McKusick for several } r ears — the result showing an 
average, from readings taken at 9 A. M. and 3 p. m. in 
winter, of fifty degrees to sixty -five degrees; sometimes 
down as low as forty, but not often; in summer, at the 
same hours, from seventy-eight to ninety degrees; occa- 



22 GE0EGET0WN DIYIDE. 

sionally as high as one hundred and two degrees, which 
is the highest. 

The extremes for the month of December, 1873, were 
from thirty-one degrees to sixty degrees; for the month 
of June, 1873, from thirty-three degrees to ninety de- 
grees. 

THE BAEOMETEE 

An inch to Stands, at Georgetown, at twenty-seven inches in sum- 

1000 feet ' O J J 

mer, and 0.1 inch higher in winter, indicating an atmos- 
pheric pressure of three inches of the mercurial column 
less than at the sea level, being twenty-five hundred 
feet above the sea. An inch is, at this height, about 
equal to one thousand feet. 

For Evapoeation, see under "Water," subdivision 
Y. The hygrometer has not been observed. 

(*)— DISCHAKGE OF KIYEES 

AT THE HEIGHT OP THE DRY SEASON. 

76oo inches The discharge of waters from the basin of the Amer- 
ican, as gauged at Folsom, at the lowest stage in sum- 
mer,* in 1866, was 12,691 cubic feet per minute. 

AT EXTEEME FLOOD. 

Leet & God- Measurements were taken of the sectional area of the 

dard's rep't 

American at Folsom Canon, Brighton, and Sacramento, 
under the auspices of the Trustees of Swamp Land Dis- 
trict No. 2 (Sacramento county), during the great flood 
of January 9 and 10, 1862. The results were published 
in the " Sacramento Union " of May 6, 16, and 19, 1862; 
but the figures (in cubic feet per second) are so extrav- 
agantly large (nine hundred times the discharge of the 

* Carefully measured at extreme low water, in 1866, by H. F. Knight, 
Superintendent of the Natoma Water Company. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 23 

Mississippi) and the actual measurements are so ob- 
scurely stated, that I shall quote neither. The sec- 
tional area of the flood waters at Folsom Canon was 
about two hundred feet wide by forty feet deep, as re- 
ported by Watson, engineer of Sacramento Valley Kail- 
road, which, allowing for shelving bottom, would be 
equal to a sectional area of half of two hundred by 
forty, or four thousand square feet; and the velocity, 
though set down by Leet and Goddard at thirty-one 
miles an hour (a rapid train movement), could not have 
exceeded, probably, an average of ten miles an hour, 
or eight hundred and eighty feet per minute; which 
would make the discharge three and one half million „ .„. 

° 2 million 

cubic feet per minute, or nearly three hundred times inches 
the quantity discharged at the lowest stage in summer. 

AT THE ORDINARY FLOOD SEASON 

Each winter varies. Estimating the ordinary discharge 
of the last winter at four hundred and seventy -five thou- 
sand cubic feet per minute, this would still be thirty- 
six times the quantity of water discharged in summer. 

In other words, the ordinary discharge of rivers and 30 to 300 

■ m times that ■ 

streams, in this region, is at least thirty times, and of summer 
the extraordinary, three hundred times greater in the 
saturated months than in the three or four parched 
ones, which are to be taken into consideration in the 
principal operations of a Water Company. 

TOTAL PRECIPITATION. 

Taking an average of the seventy, sixty, fifty, and 4^ feet of 
forty inches of rainfall, at various points on the Divide, ing 
or western slope of the Sierra, at fifty-five inches, or 
four and one half feet, and the area of the Divide at 
one thousand square miles, the total rainfall would make 



24 GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 

deep 18 feet a ^e °f * w0 hundred and fifty square miles, or twelve 
miles by twenty-one miles, eighteen feet deep. 

i acre in 4 Every four acres of valley basin would fill a reservoir 
of one acre to the same depth; equal to seven hundred 
and eighty -four thousand cubic feet, or a stream of ten 
miners' inches, running ten hours a day (enough to irri- 
gate four acres of alfalfa), for over two and one half 
months. 

i acre catch- In other words, one acre of catchment would irri- 

ment to 1 

acre alfalfa gate one acre of alfalfa for two and one half months, 
with a constant flowing stream of two and one half 
miners' inches. Evaporation and seepage could scarce- 
ly curtail this stream to two months. 

conclusion From these climatic data, which may be depended 
upon, it will appear evident that it is not the water so 
much as the facility and economy of impounding it 
within reach of where it is wanted in the rainless sea- 
son, that have to be looked to in the operations of a 
water company in California. 



MINING. 25 



III.--MINING. 

1. — Mines owned by California Water Company. 

2. — Yield op Gold Mines. 

3. — Characteristics of Mines. 

4. — Extraction and Keduction. 

5. — Gravel and Placer Mines. 

6. — Copper, Iron, Cinnabar, Limestone. 

TNDEB this head will be considered, in the order 
^ of their geographical position, the characteristics 
of individual mines. Their general relations will be 
considered under Geology, Subdivision IV. 

(1).— MINES OWNED BY THE CALIFOENIA 
WATEE COMPANY. 

The mining properties owned, in whole or in part, by 
the California Water Company, more particularly de- 
scribed further on, are : 

1. The French, or Nagler claims, Greenwood; com- 
prising three claims, viz: The French claim proper, 
the St. Lawrence, and the Fenton. A one-half interest. 

2. The American, or Smith mine, north of Green- 
Wood. A half interest. 

3. Ground near the American. The whole. 

4. The French Hill claim, Spanish Dry Diggings. 
The whole. 

5. The Grit claim, Spanish Dry Diggings. One 
quarter. 

6. The Whiteside mine, Crane's Gulch. One half. 

7. The Blazing Star, Wentworth & Co., near Kel- 
sey's. One half. 



26 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

8. Ground adjoining Wentworth's, fifteen hnndred 
feet on the seam belt. The whole. 

9. Bed Bock Sluice, Greenwood Canon, three 
fourths of a mile long. One half. 

10. Kelsey Canon to the South Fork of the Ameri- 
can, a distance of 3,000 feet. The whole. 

11. Schlein's Diggings (placer), Tipton Hill. The 
whole. 

12. Lease of the Boss claim (placer), near Volcano- 
ville, to run two years. 

13. A Prospect Quartz claim, near Johntown. One 
eighth. 

14. Bunker Hill (copper mine). The whole. 

15. The Bowlder Hill (placer). The northern ex- 
tremity of, including a tunnel to work the same. 

(2).^YIELD OF GOLD MINES. 

Averaging The following statements were made to me by va- 

impractical ° d 

ble - rious parties not interested, and subsequently scruti- 

nized or pruned down to what may be taken as gener- 
ally accepted figures. 

25 cents. (a) Of the Seam Diggings — Pan Assays. — In mines 

of a character so irregular as the seam, pocket, and the 
lense-shaped quartz mines of this region, no average 
yield can be arrived at or stated. Even the absolute 
yield in particular cases during a limited period is diffi- 
cult to obtain. No "run" is like another. 

When seam diggings are prospected, the report is so 
many "cents to the pan." 

(1).— AT SPANISH DRY DIGGINGS. 
strikes. Drift mining, often during one month, pays so well, 



MINING. 27 

I was informed, as to answer for fruitless work during 
the remainder of the year. Mr. Davis, a practical 
miner at Spanish Dry Diggings, summed up the philos- 
ophy of seam mining by remarking, " that the country 
hereabouts is splendid for poor men to prospect; but 
none of them have ever learned when to stop. Every- 
body here might have been rich." 

The Geit Claim. — Captain Swift, of Georgetown, $300,000. 
owned and worked in the Grit Claim for seven years 
prior to 1867. He reports that they got out one hun- 
dred thousand dollars during that time. The principal 
gold was taken out in 1852. Mr. Waun, of Spanish 
Dry Diggings, estimates that they took out of the Grit 
Claim, altogether, about three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. 

The Taylor &, Kice Mine, at the same place, paid $20,000. 
Mr. Taylor about twenty thousand dollars. They took 
out altogether about sixty thousand dollars. 

The French Hill Claim paid within the space of a $3,000. 
few feet square (at a in the section below) three thou- 
sand dollars. 

The Barr & Crosston Mine. — Messrs. Barr & Cross- $75,000-55 

lbs. 

ton went out of the country with seventy-five thousand 
dollars, which was cleared out of their mine. Upon 
one occasion they brought up the hill sixty-five pounds 
and eleven ounces of gold, the product of a month's 
labor. 

(2).— AT GEOEGIA SLIDE. 

The Parson's Claim has been worked successively seam 

Mining 

for twelve years, and now pays, according to one of the Profitable. 
proprietors, seven hundred dollars per month clear of 



28 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

all expenses to three men employed. They have taken 
out as much as eighteen or nineteen hundred dollars a 
month, clear of all expenses. The latter amounted to 
one hundred dollars per month for powder, fuse, etc., 
$6oo,ooo. and a dollar and fifty cents a day for ten inches of 
water, at a bit an inch a day (twenty-four hours), the 
company having a small ditch of their own. Probably 
half a million dollars have come out of Georgia Slide. 

$8,000 per The Beatty Claim yielded, according to Mr. Bark- 
Month. J ' ° 

lage, one thousand dollars in one month, clear of all 
expenses, to a one-eighth interest; making a total of 
eight thousand dollars per month clear of all expenses. 
It has been worked and constantly paying for seventeen 
years, but at what rate is unknown. 

(3}.— AT GKEENWOOD. 

$ioo 5 ooo. The French Claim, at Greenwood, has paid from 

twenty thousand to thirty thousand dollars to the Water 
Company alone. The rate has been as high as one hun- 
dred and twenty dollars a week, but the average would 
probably be about eighty dollars a week, running two 
thirds of the time. The total yield, from the best 
information obtained, is about one hundred thousand 
dollars. 

$23,000. The St. Lawrence, the McMichael, and French 

Claims, at Greenwood, were each yielding, in 1860, at 
the rate of forty to fifty ounces per week. The St. Law- 
rence has yielded a total of twenty-three thousand dol- 
lars. The outlay for water was eight thousand dollars. 
Four men were working in it for ten months, with the 
above result. 

$13,600. The Spanish Claim has yielded eight hundred 



MINING. 29 

ounces, worth seventeen dollars per ounce, equal to 
thirteen thousand six hundred dollars. 

(4.)— EMPIKE AND MANHATTAN CANON KIDGE. 

The Crane's Gulch Mine has yielded about one $100,000 
hundred thousand dollars. 

(4.)_ON THE PLACEEVILLE DIVIDE. 

The "Porphyry" Ledge, worked by Fisk and others, $3,000. 
has paid very large sums. In 1870, four parties were 
at work. Fisk, in that year, took three thousand dol- 
lars out of a space eight feet wide, ten feet deep, and 
twenty feet long, and four hundred dollars in a day. 
Hodge took out considerable dirt containing one hun- 
dred dollars to the pan. Detached pieces weighed 
from twenty-five to forty ounces. 

Placerville Divide, in 1870, shipped gold from its $10,000 per 

Week. 

seam and gravel mines at the rate of ten thousand dol- 
lars per week. 

(6).— YIELD OF QUAKTZ MINES. 

The St. Lawrence ships its bullion very regularly. $25 Per Ton 
Its average rock pays twenty-five dollars a ton ; picked 
rock, fifty dollars a ton. The St. Lawrence was pur- 
chased, in 1871, by the present owners, for fifteen thou- 
sand dollars. At that time it had been crushing rock 
for a while worth fifteen dollars a ton. There are forty 
stamps in the mill crushing forty tons of rock a day. 

The Woodside Mine yielded from twenty to thirty $ 30> ooo. 
thousand dollars and upward. 

The Clipper Mine has yielded about eight thousand $8,000. 
dollars. 



30 

$2,500. 

$45 Per Ton. 

$15,000. 



Ten Cents 
Per Yard. 



$50,000. 



$25,000. 



$500,000. 



5 Millions. 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

The Keefer Mine yielded two or three thousand 
dollars. 

The Cedarberg. — The average assay of the Cedar- 
berg rock, according to the superintendent (Mr. Hal- 
forth), at the time of my visit, was from forty-five to 
sixty-two dollars a ton. Out of a space twenty-five feet 
in depth, twelve feet long, and about eight feet wide, 
near the surface — ninety cubic yards — forty-five thou- 
sand dollars were taken. 

(c).— YIELD OF PLACER MINES. 

On the Mount . Gregory Eidge there are nuggets of 
coarse gold, mixed with fine gold in scales. The gravel 
is said to pay, in many places, ten cents per cubic yard. 
Nearly every pan of dirt, in some of these mines, shows 
colors of gold. 

Oregon Hill. — Several years ago Jones & Company 
realized out of mining operations in Oregon Hill, fifty 
thousand dollars. In 1870, they were reputed to be 
making two thousand dollars per week. 

The Bowlder Claim cleaned up twenty-five thousand 
dollars from seven months' run. 

Jones' Hill, according to S. Bently, of that place, 
has yielded, from its ancient river and seam diggings 
together, over a million dollars. This figure is not dis- 
credited by Mr. Barklage, merchant and dealer in gold 
dust at Georgia Slide. Mr. McKusick thinks Jones' 
Hill gravel mines have yielded as much as half a mil- 
lion dollars, safely. 

At Coon Hill, on the Placerville Divide, twenty -five 
acres of gravel yielded, according to Bishop's calcula- 



MINING. 31 

tion, based on actual returns, twenty-five million dol- 
lars. These figures seem rather large. To be on the 
safe side, say five millions. 

(3.)— CHABACTERISTICS OF MINING. 

Beginning with what would appear to be the older 
strata at the west (see under IY) : 

(1).— OPHIR DISTRICT. 

Geological Characteristics. — The mines of this dis- contact of. 

Slate and 

trict are all near the line of junction between the slates Granite - 
and the foothill granites, bordering Sacramento Yalley. 
The best paying mines, according to the popular im- 
pression, are situated near the line of contact. The 
Ophir and Bellevue veins are both in granite ; the St. 
Patrick and the Green in slate. 

The line of contact has the same course in general as 
the strike of the slates. Auburn is in slate. The junc- 
tion occurs very nearly (not quite) halfway between 
Auburn and the Ophir mine. Further down the moun- 
tain slope the country is of granite, as far as there is 
any rock visible, to Sacramento Yalley. 

Both the granite and slate, in this region, are very 
hard at one hundred feet depth. On the surface, they 
have, in some places, weathered soft to the depth of 
twenty feet. 

Yeins. — The veins, or seams, in the district, all have Lense 
the same course, parallel to the strike of the slates — Quartz, 
north-northwest and south-southeast. The quartz and 
vein material generally, including the ore, is pockety in 
character, resembling, in that respect, all the pay mines 
described as worked in Georgetown and Placerville 
Divides. Lenticular masses continue for some dis- 



32 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

tauce, and then pinch out. There is always a fissure, 
however, that continues, leaving no doubt that they are 
true fissure veins. The quartz is from six inches to four 
feet wide. 

The Pay is in the form of flakes and sheets. Most of 
the ledges are impregnated with sulphurets of iron, 
which assay never less than a few dollars to the ton. 
The country rock adjacent is always considerably im- 
pregnated with sulphurets. 
$200 a Ton. ijj he Y IELr) varies very greatly. In the case of a re- 
plevin suit, attended by Cravens, the State Librarian, 
thirty sacks of ore out of the Ophir mine contained 
twenty-three hundred dollars. A good deal of the rock 
is worth several hundred dollars to the ton. A rich 
pocket was struck in the seam mine, however, " which 
was almost all gold." With a hand mortar a man might 
frequently make fifty dollars a day out of the vein ma- 
terial. 

200 reet. Extent of Mining. — On the Bellevue vein they have 

gone down two hundred and fifty feet, or deeper; in the 
St. Patrick and Green, about the same depth. The 
Ophir works have reached a depth of about two hun- 
dred feet. 

(2).— PILOT hill. 

"Coyotey- On the easterly slope of Pilot Hill there is a belt of 

ing." J x 

seam diggings resembling those of Greenwood, which 
have been worked to considerable extent by coyoteying 
shafts and levels, and arastra milling in true Spanish 
style. The ground has been surfaced off over forty 
yards square. They were not worked during the time 
of my visit, but were reported to have yielded good 
pay, and to be excellent property. 



MINING. 



33 



(3).— NEIGHBOKHOOD OF GKEENWOOD. 

Beginning at the north and going southward along 
the strike of the slates : On the top of the hill west of 
Greenwood there is, first, the — 

(1). Spanish Mine. — This shows the usual character- 
istics of parallelism to the slates, the vein standing 
nearly vertical, and being intersected by minor cross 
seams. 

There are two principal pay seams, running northerly Jjjj^gj 
and southerly, and embracing a seam-belt about one hun- 
dred feet wide. All the smaller seams and side stringers 
carry gold. A space of four hundred feet by twenty- 
four feet, and four feet in depth, has been hydrauliced 
off, yielding thirteen thousand six hundred dollars. The 
pay has been followed farther down in a shaft eighty 
feet deep, and explored in tunnels and drifts for twenty 
or thirty feet in either direction. The vein at the bot- 
tom of the shaft is two and one half feet wide. The dip 
of the eastern vein worked appears to be toward the 
southwest 50°; but there are indications elsewhere of 
conformity of dip with the general dip of the country 
rock. 

From a cut about seventy-five feet distant, west from 
the principal shaft, there is a drift running north thirty- 
five feet, and another south fifty feet, on a ledge three 
feet thick, parallel to the above mentioned. 

(2). The Caeeoll Claim is on the east slope of 
Greenwood Hill. A space eighty by forty feet, and fif- 
teen feet in depth, has been hydrauliced away, and a cleavage 

courses. 

tunnel has been run in, at a lower level, to intersect the 
seam-belt, which is at the west end of the hydraulic pit. 
There are three series of cleavage courses lined with 
auriferous decomposed quartz, dipping respectively 



u 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Quartz 



Metamor- 
phic trap. 



Quartz 
ledge. 



Tunnel, 



north 20° east 50°; south 45° east 30°; and north 65° 
west 70°; the latter being often double, as represented 
in the diagram, Fig. 5 : 




Pay. 



Fig. 5.— CLEAVAGE IN CARROLL, MINE. 

The southerly and southeasterly dips are regular and 
uniform. The latter have flakes of quartz, which are 
probed out by the miners. In the line of the south- 
easterly dip there is a very hard, blue, metamorphic 
trap, of the character common to the country, inter- 
calated between the cleavage lines. It appears to be a 
mass by itself, and but for the frequent repetition else- 
where of similar masses, that are undoubtedly meta- 
morphic (changed from the slates), it might be mis- 
taken for eruptive trap. 

About one hundred and fifty feet west of the intersec- 
tion of the pay seams, there is, on the top of the hill, 
one hundred feet higher, a well-marked quartz ledge, 
which carries a single, solid seam, four inches in thick- 
ness, either belonging, or closely related, to the same 
metalliferous channel. 

The tunnel mentioned was run in by LeDuc, at a 
point two hundred feet east-northeast and ninety feet 
below the pit; in a west-southwesterly course, distance 
unknown. Less decomposed specimens of the rock 
than those on the surface are here met with. 

The Pay is in a soft, red dirt, intermixed with a par- 
tially-decomposed, "scraggly" quartz, occupying the 



MINING. 



35 



position of quartz veinlets. The decomposed quartz 
containing gold is, to a large extent, clayey red, ferru- 
ginous dirt, which would catch gold in it and carry it 
through the sluices. 

On panning out a quantity of the pay dirt, which had 
been pointed ont as such by Mr. Carroll to Mr. Jones, 
we were not rewarded with a color. 

A sectional view along the tunnel through the vein- 
belt discloses the following features : 







Fig. 6.-CARROLL MINE, GREENWOOD HILL. 

A — Belt of metamorphic decomposition. 
B — Perfectly laminated black slate. 
C — Carroll claim. 
D — Quartz vein. 

(3).— THE FRENCH, OR NAGLER CLAIM. 
This is worked in a vein system in the strike of the Tr . 

•/ Vein, por- 

slates; course, south 37° east; dip, northeast 75°. The phyry ' 
width of the seam-belt here is about two hundred feet. 
On the west side of the principal vein lies one hundred 
feet of typical porphyry, strikingly different in color 
and mineralogical constituents from the rest; and on 
the east side, decomposed slate rock, lithologically pro- 
bably much the same as the "porphyry." 

There are found isolated portions of the same por- stages of 
phyry in different stages of consolidation, from hard, pbism. 
blue diorite, through all stages of hardness to red and 
brown loam. 

An area of about two thousand square yards is hy- Tit and 



duct. 



pro- 



36 GEORGETOWN DIYIDE. 

drauliced off to an average depth of about thirty feet. 
Gross yield of mining operations about one hundred 
thousand dollars, 
veio section The main vein is four feet wide, and constituted of 
decomposed quartz and gouge. Along it is laid the 
sluice. Looking south along this I observed the fol- 
lowing section: 




Fig. 7.-SECTION OF NAGLER VEIN. 

PP — Porphyry in part; metamorphic belt in the slates. 

A — Main vein of dark colored matter, resembling gouge . 

B — Quartz seamlets. 

G — Well defined vein wall. 

F to _&-- More or less perfect wall parallels, possibly due to stratifica- 
tion, enclosing in F E G white and yellow specimens, accompanying re- 
port. 

D — Zone of white and yellow, stratified . 

E — Perfect wall, with smooth sides . 

F — Perfect wall, with smooth sides . 

H— Zone like D. 

GE — Zone containing porphyritic trap masses . 

The main vein is shaded dark. The best marked fis- 
sure wall is C. A series of slate-like strata, six feet 
wide, of probably pseudo-morphic stratification, are 
seen in the hanging wall, separated from the accompa- 
nying porphyry country rock by another well marked 
fissure wall (D.) The dip of these two fissure walls men- 



MINING. 



37 



tioned is such that they must meet near the soil at the 
surface of the ground where the Georgetown and Green- 
wood road passes around the head of the claim. D ev- 
idently joins the main vein again under foot. Yery 
little quartz is found in the main vein. 

A Cross Vein, of solid quartz, running at right angles ^^cuon! 
to the former, starts east from the middle of the claim, 
and bends around to the southward. It is probably 
one of the same system of intersecting veins, the course 
and dip of w T hich are observed repeated in the Fenton 
and St. Lawrence mines; at this point intersecting the 
main French claim vein itself, and enriching it to the 
extent of a considerable portion of the yield of the 
French claim. A shaft has been sunk on this, twenty- 
four feet deep, at a point forty feet from the main vein, 
to a depth of thirty feet. It has proven not only the 
continuance of a considerable vein of quartz, two feet 
wide at the bottom, not counting the stringers, but of a 
chimney of good pay, the working of which had been 
drowned out at the time of my visit. The course of this course. 
vein is north 68° east for the first forty feet from the 
vein; thence it is followed by a tunnel, twenty-six feet in 
length, running south 85° east. The dip alters in that 
distance. Starting out at 70° toward the south, it is as 
steep as 80° or 90° near the surface on the east face of 
the bank of the claim; while in the tunnel, twenty-six 
feet into the bank, its dip is, on the level of the sluice, 
80° toward the south. The dip of the vein at the bot- 
tom of the shaft is the same as at its mouth at the tun- 
nel. Hence it is a twisting cross vein, at the point 
where it runs into the main vein ; and its true or general 
course can be better judged by identifying it with other 
cross veins of the same system, found, as stated, at 
a greater distance. 



38 

Cxat-off. 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

This intersecting vein does not cross the main vein. 
It is cut off by the strongly-marked porphyry to the 
west on the foot wall of the main vein. Though 
strongly developed on the one side, not a sign of the 
vein can be found, apparently, on the other. 

Standing on the main, and looking east, the cross 
vein presents the following sectional view : 




Fig. 8-CROSS VEIN, NAG-LER CLAIM, GREENWOOD. 

G — Clayey vein deposit. 
Q — Quartz. 
A— Irregular continuations of clayey deposit, mixed with scragly quartz. 

BELATIONS TO COUNTKY EOCK. 
A section across the French or Nagler claim seam- 
belt, as a whole, presents the following characteristics : 




\wlMwi 

m 

mkMMmalla 



A — Main vein. 

B C — Sectional outline of pit. 



MINING. 



39 



D—Oue hundred and fifty feet of hard bine and J££££ 
also decomposed red and yellow porphyry, occasionally 
showing evidences of stratification related to that of F. 
In the Curtiss mine, adjoining the French claim on the 
north, it becomes evident to the eye at a glance that 
this is but a metamorphosed concretionary form of the 
slates. Near the junction of the Curtiss and Nagler 
claims,, it becomes evident, also, that the white pyritif- 
erous rock of the Carroll claim, and the " blue por- 
phyry," or diorite, are the same rock in varying forms. 
They are due, I think, to nests of metamphorphism. 

E — Soft feldspathic porphyry, worked ninety feet 
west of the sluices, without any signs of stratification 
whatever. Quartz veinlets run in this fifty or seventy 
feet from the main vein, one series of which has a dip 
and strike corresponding to that of the main vein. 

F — Slates, perfectly formed; like those at the Car- 
roll claim; dip, north 40° east 40°; getting steeper to- 
ward D. 

G — Slates two hundred and thirty feet; intercalated 
with quartz and trap dikes near the top of the hill, along 
the Greenwood road. 

H — Quartz ledge, dipping slightly to the east again. 

J — Exposed ledge, containing nodules and lenses 
of quartz; vertical, or of a slightly westerly dip. 

K— Tunnel on south side of road, near the flume 
over the road. 

(4).— THE FENTON MINE. 
Shows a decomposed belt, to the west of which is a soft and 

i i c i -i n ■ kard belts. 

belt oi hard, green porphyretic trap or green stone, the 
non-denudation of which caused the several hills back 
of Greenwood, situated between the French claim and 
the Fenton mine. 



40 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Two vein 
systems. 



runuel. 



A space of forty by sixty feet is hydrauliced off to an 
average depth of six feet. 

Two sets of quartz veins are visible beside the main 
pay channel, as forming the skeleton of the seams of 
this mine ; the one having a course north 70° east, and 
dipping 80° south; the other having a strike north 70° 
east, and dipping south-southwest 50°. The vein is 
locally dislocated. On the one side of the ravine it is 
shoved down hill ten feet, and there dips east 75°. 

From a point nearly opposite the angle of the George- 
town road with Greenwood Valley, at Nagler's store, 
two hundred feet from the mouth of the sluices, a tunnel 
has been run in a distance of three hundred feet with- 
out intersecting the seam belt. 



Favorable 
te bydraul- 
icing. 



(5).— THE ST. LAWRENCE SEAM MINE. 

Mining. — Here an immense hole has been washed 
out in unusually soft ground, with one hundred inches 
of water, at a cost of ten or twelve dollars a day. Ten 
months' time did the work. There was paid for this 
water only eight thousand dollars. Four men were em- 
ployed, and the yield was twenty-three thousand dol- 
lars. 

Quartz vein Geological Features. — The hill to the west of the 
ofjheseam mine, a continuation of Greenwood range (already re- 
ferred to as having been left undenuded on account of 
its hard character), is at this point not constituted of 
greenstone porphyry entire, but of slates, in part unal- 
tered, in part considerably metamorphosed, and only 
assuming the form of greenstone porphyry in nests. 
The local cause of the existence of this hill makes itself 
prominently known to the eye in the form of a great 
longitudinal quartz vein which is situated at the apex. 



MINING. 41 

It is in the strike of the slates, and forms the west 

or foot wall of the seam series. The entire hill-top is 

covered with quartz eroppings. This ledge, associated 

with greenstone porphyry, forms cones all along the 

range to its termination at the south, where Greenwood 

Creek cuts through the Greenwood range of hills, three 

quarters of a mile south of Greenwood village; crossing 

Greenwood Canon in a plainly-traceable decomposed 

belt, and in several parallel vein-belts. (See section 

across Greenwood Hill, further on.) 

The continuation of the Greenwood belt toward the 

south is marked by mining operations in the hill on the 

west side of Coloma Canon, near mid-slope toward the 

canon, bearing from Greenwood Hill south, 42° east. 

About the middle of the St. Lawrence mine there is st. Lau- 
rence main 

a vein which is considered by Mr. Nagler, one of the vein 
owners, to be the same as the main vein in the French 
claim. It is about eighteen inches wide, and has a very 
perfect foot wall. A shaft was sunk down along this 
thirty-eight feet deep, in solid slate. Mr. Nagler says seams. 
he has traced this vein over the hill all the way to the 
French claim. From the main vein of the St. Lawrence 
another series of seams run off, striking to the south- 
east. 

The seam-belt is on the east or hanging wall, in this seam-beit. 
case, and is about one hundred and twenty-five feet 
in width. Mr. Nagler thinks that as they go down on 
the seams the rock changes into solid slate. 

The following section exhibits the principal features 
of the Greenwood seam-belt at this point, in association 
with some local disturbances of the slates : 



42 



w. s 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

.150 yards E N. E. 




Fig. 10.-SECTION OF ST. LAWRENCE SEAM MINE. 

E — Eed stratum, 3 feet, in position of main vein (which was covered 
up by a slide) . 

J?"— Eed and white, dipping NE 35°. 

£— White. 

H— Slates dipping W 50 to 80°. 

J"— Quartz vein, accompanied by trap masses and metamorphosed 
slates, all dipping ENE 70° . 

G to E — Pit of St. Lawrence mine. 



The pay is mostly found near the vein, not in it; in 
the hanging wall, or on the east side. 



The Beam- 
belt 150 feet 
deeper. 



SECTION OF EROSION THROUGH THE GREENWOOD SEAM-BELT 
AND THE GREENWOOD RANGE OF HILLS. 

Descending along the quartz and porphyry comb at 
the south end of the St. Lawrence Hill, I found, a few 
yards below the junction of Greenwood and Coloma 
canons, opposite Chinatown, not only the decomposed 
belt of the Greenwood mines in the bottom of the val- 
ley, one hundred and fifty feet lower than the bottom of 
the French claim, but several distinct sets of quartz 
veins or seams, as represented in the following section : 



MINING. 



43 



HALF A MILE. 



sw 



m m 









i 

i llltl P |S # »■ a:' 




Fig. 11. -SECTION ACROSS GREENWOOD RANGE OF HILLS AT 
GREENWOOD CANON, NEAR CHINATOWN. 

A — Metamorphic trap (aphanite.) 

B — Soft decomposed slate rock. 

B C — Petro's quartz ledge, 18°. 

C — Decomposed slate. 

D — Metamorphic trap, 160 yds. 

E — Hard, dark colored slate, 60 yds. 

F-- Metamorphic trap, 25 yds . 

G — Slates, dark, hard, and perfectly laminated. 

H— Mass of silicified strata, 16 ft. (with a few quartz seams) ; not con- 
tinuing as such along the strike across the bed of the creek; cropping 
out in ledges on the hill N. 20 W., striking direct for the top of St. 
Lawrence seam belt. This point is 100 yards southwest of the ledges 
E, and 200 yards west of Chinatown, on the old Georgetown road. 

L — Conglomerate bed, 3 feet. 

E— Slates, perfectly laminated. 

E— Quartz ledges, striking N. 25° W. ; nearly solid, about 4 feet wide, 
standing almost vertical. There are two principal stringers of quartz, 
the heaviest being on the west side. That on the east is more earthy, 
consisting of a number of parallel seams. Between the two there is a 
black seam, 3 inches thick. To the westward of the series is a great 
number of small quartz seams going off into the country rock . 

EE — Slates, occasionally silicious. 

if— Belt of iron-colored weathered greenstone (aphanite"), 100 feet. 

JV— Slate, 20 feet. 

J"— Light colored decomposed rock, 125 feet, corresponding to the 
position of the St. Lawrence mine; 75 yards from the old Georgetown 
road. 

P — Perfectly laminated dark slate. 

(5).— EAST SLOPE OF COLOMA CANON. 

Leaderick & Co. have here a shaft down twenty-two 
feet upon a quartz ledge, two feet in width, carrying 
gold. From two hundred and fifty pounds of rock there 
were pounded out seven ounces of gold. 



44 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

(6).— EICH FLAT. 

southward The Blazing Star mine (Wentworth & Co.) is situated 

in the same 

8iates° ftlie a ^ ou * * w0 miles west of Kelsey's, by the road. Eich 
Flat, one and one half miles west of Kelsey's, is sup- 
posed to be on the same range; the strike of which, in 
the line of the slates, would locate the continuation of 
this zone one half or three quarters of a mile west of 
Placerville. 

$100,000. At Kich Flat, common report says there have been 

taken out one hundred thousand dollars from surface 
diggings in the main. 

$3,000. At Wentworth's Andre Bullion took out three or four 

thousand dollars. The vein is in all respects similar to 

wood. * " that of the French or Nagler claim, Greenwood. It 
stands very nearly vertical, is composed of a principal 
line of fissure and associated metamorphism, and has, 
on the east, over one hundred feet of soft slate, or por- 
phyry, which is being hydrauliced into the creek, run- 
ning from this point south into the South Fork of the 
American. 

(7).-AMEKICAN CANON. 

To the north of Greenwood, on the west bank of 
American Canon, are several seam mines. The George, 
Smith, American, Conner's, and Mauley mines are all 
on the same belt, through which American Canon has 
cut a natural section. It is farther west in the strike of 
the slates than the Cedarberg and Spanish Dry Dig- 
gings mines, elsewhere described. The American 
Canon intersecting this series at a veiy much lower 
altitude, a careful examination was made of the seam 
belt as exposed to view, by the artificial and natural 
operations of water combined. 



MINING. 



45 



At the American mine (Smith Brothers) I obtained 
the following section : 




Fig. 12.-AMERICAN (SMITH) MINE, 

P— Tunnel, 73 feet. 
B— Slate. 

G — Weathered trap, or "blue rock," impregnated with iron pyrites; 
outlines of mine. 

D — More solid trap, impregnated -with pyrites. 

DC — Horizontal distance of 200 feet. 

K— Slate (above the ditch), soft and decomposed. 

J — Soap rock. 

H— Flint rock ; quartz. 

G — Decomposed slate, like K. 

F— Quartz ledge. 

if— Slate for half a mile. 

N— Soap rock, 75 ft . 

George's mine is within a few hundred yards of the. 
Smith mine. 

(8).— AT THE CONNEK MINE, 

On the right bank of the American Canon, a section Associated 

° 7 trap 

was observed, consisting of decomposed ground en- strati 
tirely with slate on the east, and trap on the west. A 
westerly dip at the top of the mine visibly curves to an 
easterly one at the bottom. As products of metamor- 
phism, the specimens collected here are interesting. 



46 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 
(9)— AT THE MAULEY CLAIM, 

On the south bank of the Middle Fork of the Ameri- 
can, I observed the following section : 



E 200 feet 




Fig. 13.-SECTION OF THE MAULEY MINE, ON THE MIDDLE 
FORK OF THE AMERICAN. 

A — Vein matter (gouge, etc.), consisting of quartz in the hanging 
wall, and the usual soft, decomposed, red and yellow dirt of the seam 
diggings, 15 feet. 

B— Well defined foot wall. 

C— Quartz lenses. 

Z>— Slate. 

E — Irregular or massive decomposed ground accompanying the vein, 
occasionally showing lines of stratification parallel to the slates. 

.F— Cross course of quartz and decomposed vein matter. 

G — LittJe vein or seam. 

H — Nagler's house and trail to the Archimedes Vineyard. 

J J— Outlines of mine. 



GENERAL SECTION ACROSS THE SEAM BELTS. 

A natural or view section, at right angles across the 
seam-belts of this Divide, west of the Spanish Dry Dig- 
gings range of hills, and near the Middle Fork of the 
American, looking north, as deduced from the preced- 
ing observations, extending down to an altitude one 
thousand feet lower than Greenwood, discloses the fol- 
lowing structure: 




47 



Fig. 14.-NATURAL SECTION AT AMERICAN CANON AND THE 
MIDDLE FORK OF THE AMERICAN. 

A — American mine, in the same strike as the Greenwood mines. 

B — Conner and Mauley mines, in the same strike. 

C — Mines on the north side of the river, in the same strike. 

D— Sliger. 

L — Hines & Smith's diggings. 

E — Atlantic and Pacific. 

F — Cedarberg. 

G — Waun (Taylor & Eice) and French Hill mines. 

iZ— Grit. 

J— Fargo. 

K— Walker ledge, Rocky Chucky. 

M— Young's dry diggings. 



(10).— AT SPANISH DRY DIGGINGS. 

Geological Featukes. — The Grit claim shows a pit soaprock 
about fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, and sixty feet 
in depth; and is, also, in the strike of the slates at their 
junction with a soap-rock belt. The pay-belt is about 
fifty feet wide. As at the Cedarberg, the slates are on 
the east, and the soap-rock on the west. This body of 
soap-rock runs to a point to the southward, in the town, 
at a distance of about two hundred feet from the claim. 

At right angles to the strike, going east, in a distance 
of about two hundred and fifty yards, some red-spotted 
slates set in, which continue around the south end of 
the soap-rock, and cut it off in that direction. 



48 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Veins only 
in depth. 



Veins cross- 
ing the 
Middle 
Fork. 



Pay dirt 



Vein. — At the Grit there are no seams of any size, 
nor any signs of quartz noticeable above a depth of 
forty feet. At about forty feet below the surface there 
was some hard quartz, which occurred in several re- 
peated swells or lenses, about three feet wide, and 
thirty feet long; perhaps one hundred feet deep. 

The pay ran along the quartz, but was not in the 
quartz. 

(11).— THE BARB, & CROSSTON MINE 

Is on the same belt, about two hundred yards hori- 
zontally north. (See under Yield.) 

(12).— AT KOCKY CHUCKY 

The vein crosses the river, and is there plainly ob- 
servable. A number of small parallel stringers of 
quartz, five inches wide, is all that there is on the seam- 
belts at this altitude, although, according to one ac- 
count, "a big ledge, eight feet wide," is observable 
somewhere in the same neighborhood. I was not 
able to visit the locality to see for myself. This is 
claimed by Mr. Walker, of Spanish Dry Diggings. It 
is visible on both sides of the river, and has paid 
largely. 

The pay dirt consists of a red, " scraggy " material, 
which may be traced up the hillside, in a manner show- 
ing that the gold is not of alluvial origin. 



(13).— THE WAUN MINE 

seam series (Taylor & Kice, formerly) is on a parallel belt, half a 
mile west of the Grit belt. Here are four series of 
seams, in a pay zone of., fifty feet in width; running, 
also, in the strike of the slates, and dipping accord- 
ingly to the east about 80°. A pit of one hundred and 



MINING. 



49 



twenty -five by fifty feet lias been hydrauliced into the 
steep hillside. 

Vein and Pay. — Two of the pay seams are worked Mining, 
from the pit into the hill a width of three feet. About 
one hundred feet farther south (the river here running 
north) a tunnel has been run in at right angles to the 
seams, and one of the worked seams has been inter- 
sected and followed afresh, with highly remunerative 
results. It was paying richly at the time of my visit. 

The Method of Wokking is by tunnels, cross-levels, Driftin s- 
and stopes. The pay was found in a series of little par- 
allel veinlets running longitudinally, also in an inter- 
secting series of veinlets of a uniform easterly and 
westerly course. 

(14).— THE FEENCH HILL MINE, 

At Spanish Dry Diggings, is situated in about the 
same line of strike as the Waun mine, half a mile south 
of the latter. 

The following section shows the character of the de- 
posit just west of the blacksmith shop, on the road 
from the Spanish Dry Diggings to the Sliger mine : 




Fig. 15. -SECTION OF FRENCH HILL MINE, AT SPANISH DRY 
DIGGTNG-S. 

A — Seams of quartz running off into the country rock, and forming 
ri%h pockets. * 

B — Quartz vein in parallel slate bands, 8 feet; comparatively barren. 
— Yellow and grey "porphyry;" (see under Lithology;) 70 feet. 
D— Soap rock, 100 feet. 
E— Slate. 



50 



Splits and 

twists. 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

The most fantastic forms of quartz deposit were ob- 
served in this mine. While the above section shows 
the general character and position of the vein, a walk 
of three hundred yards south to where the road to the 
Sliger mine intersects it, discloses a hydraulic face, with 
the following vein formation : 



.40 feet E. 




Fig. 16.-QUARTZ DEPOSITS, FRENCH HILL. 

A— Slate. 

B — Quartz. 

C C — " Porphyry . ' ' 

D — Road to Sliger mine. 

A D C — Outline of hydraulic face. 

At the northern end of the mine the quartz dips flat- 
ter, departing from the normal dip along the slates C, 
in the following figure, to take a twist (A) very much 
like that at D, in Fig. 14, at the same time sending off 
horizontal seams, branching as at B. 




51 



Fig. 17.-QUARTZ PECULIARITIES AT FRENCH HILL,, SPANISH 
DRY DIGGINGS. 

These sections show that the vein system of the French Soap rock . 
Hill mine has the soapstone deposit to the east of it, 
like the Grit and Cedarberg mines. The seams con- 
tinue into the slates, on the west, undecomposed; but 
also into the yellow metamorphic zone, on the east; 
though they are themselves in a decomposed state — a 
fact proven by the existence of gold in quantities per- 
ceptible in hydraulic mining. 



(15).— THE SLIGER MINE 

Shows, in the tunnel, three hundred and seventy-five HeaYy 
feet from the surface horizontally, and two hundred feet Sage? 
below the surface vertically, a heavy quartz ledge (B) 
of solid white quartz, ten feet and seven feet wide at 
the bottom and top of the tunnel respectively. It is 
bounded on the west by a very hard trap (A), and on 
the east by a soapstone or talc zone (C), one hundred 
feet wide. At the bottom of the old shaft (F), the 
vein was reported to me four feet wide, being drowned 
out at the time. At the average natural surface of the 
ground, it was two feet wide. 



52 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

W 150 yards E. 



Junction cf 
seam-belts. 






^mli Iff 

■■ i 

Fig. 18.-SLIG-ER MINE. 

A— Trap. 

5 — Quartz (solid. ) 

C— Talc. 

D— Slate. 

E — Seams of Hines & Smith's mine. 

F— Sliger shaft. 

The pay in the Sliger mine is in the foot wall, and in 
the form of chntes dipping toward the north on the 
vein. The same rule as to the dip of pay chutes is said 
to hold good in the Taylor and other mines on the 
Divide. 

(16). -HINES' SEAM DIGGINGS. 

About two thirds of a mile to the northeast of the 
Sliger mine are situated Hine's Seam Diggings, on the 
same belt as E in the Sliger mine. This is worked at 
the Smith mine proper, situated several hundred yards 
south-southeast of the Sliger mine, near the Spanish 
Dry Diggings road. 

The Sliger and the Smith and Hine yeins come very 
near together at the Hine Diggings, where the dip of 
the seam worked by Hine is locally westerly, and sug- 
gestive of intimate relationship to the Sliger fissure. 

(17)._OTHEB MINES AT SPANISH DKY DIGGINGS. 

There are three seam-belts at Spanish Dry Diggings, 
beginning at the west : 



MINING. 53 

1. The Waun, or Taylor & Bice, and the French 
Claim belt. 

2. The Grit and Barr & Crosston belt. 

3. The Fargo belt, situated one quarter of a mile 
east of the Grit belt, and parallel thereto. 

The Fargo belt is from fifty to one hundred feet wide, 
and has soapstone on the west, slates on the east : 

(18) .—ON THE EAST SIDE OF AMEKICAN CANON— THE 
CEDAKBEKG MINE. 

Water. — The Cedarberg was formerly considered a water for 
seam mine. It was discovered by Cedarberg and his 
partners by following traces of gold from the canon up 
on the hillside to the vicinity of the ledge. After a 
long search in its immediate vicinity, failing to strike 
anything tangible, and coming to the end of their finan- 
cial resources, they asked for and were allowed by the 
Water Company a supply of water for a day's prospect- 
ing, by washing away the whole surface dirt. 

The Ledge. — Their flume broke down, and the water 
then did the work in its own way, disclosing a ledge of 
two or three inches in width. This was followed down 
to a depth of about twenty-five feet, and from it and 
several small adjacent veinlets, parallel to the first, 
there was taken out from ninety cubic yards forty-five 
thousand dollars in a few months. 

The vein had been worked, at the time of my visit, to improve 

ment in 

a depth of two hundred feet, where it was two feet depth - 
wide, and consisted, according to Halford, the superin- 
tendent, of solid blue and white quartz. On the one 
hundred foot level the "vein specimens are less solid, 
and are considerably intermixed with slate. 

The quartz runs, according to Mr. Halford's state- chimneys-. 



54 GE0EGET0WN DIVIDE. 

ment, in chimneys, measuring from, fifty to eighty feet 
horizontally, and vertically to unknown depth. As will 
be seen further on, I found similar chimneys in the 
Taylor and St. Lawrence mines. 
Gold chang. Pay.- The sulphurets follow the blue quartz, while 

ing in depth 

the gold is in the white and pure quartz. Sulphurets 
are scarce. At the surface, the gold was in flakes and 
sheets. At two hundred feet depth, the character 
changed to crystalline, and irregular. 
Along strike Geological Featuees. — The course of the vein is 

of slates 

and soap about north 10° west, following the strike of the slates 

rock. ? ° 

at this point. The vein is along the boundary of a belt 
of greenish soaprock, which also follows the strike of 
the slates (for a short distance, at least). 

On drifting to the westward into the soaprock, at a 
distance of forty feet, there is met with, I am told, a 
barren quartz vein, seven feet wide. 

(19).— ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC MINE. 
Fissure be- The soaprock belt continues a distance in width of 

tween talc 

and slate, about three hundred yards horizontally to the west from 
the Cedarberg vein, where is situated, at the junction 
between it and the slates on the west, the Atlantic and 
Pacific mine, on a remarkably perfect, smooth-walled 
fissure, devoid of quartz. The Atlantic and Pacific 
Company have gone down several hundred feet without 
finding the ledge they had confidently expected to reach 
in that depth, and have latterly returned to their old 
prospect hole, further south on the same fissure, where 
they are following down a seam of quartz. 

(20).— THE INTERNATIONAL MINE (BILTY'S) 
Is situated between the Cedarberg and Greenwood. 



MINING. 55 

The strike of the seam-belt is with that of the black J n e j n ta s ic amB 
slates; dip, 80° east. The principal vein of decom- 
posed quartz, etc., is three feet in width. Along it 
there is a belt of metamorphosed slates, sixty-four feet 
in width, very densely impregnated with sulphurets. 
On the foot wall, or west side, the vein is followed by a 
zone of talcose rock. Auriferous quartz, containing 
gold and sulphurets, is taken out in considerable quan- 
tity. The sulphurets are said to contain good pay. 

(21).— THE WOOD MINE, 

Alluded to under ' ' Yield ," is several hundred yards 
further south, and resembles the International in every 
respect. 

(22).— ON DUTCH CEEEK— THE TAYLOR QUARTZ MINE, 

Situated south of the old Georgetown road, has been Lenticular 

masses of 

opened to a depth of two hundred feet, and worked quartz, 
north and south on the vein for a distance ©f nearly 
one hundred feet either way. There is a fine vein at 
the bottom, only one edge of which was visible in the 
shaft at the time of my visit. A thick gouge is in the 
hanging wall, into which the shaft is being sunk to a 
depth of four hundred feet, for the purpose of fully 
testing the character of the mine. The works show 
conclusively the repetition of lenticular masses of 
quartz. The quartz lies along a well-defined fissure, 
the gouges continuing along the fissures wherever the 
quartz gives out. The quartz pinched out one hundred 
feet south of the shaft, on the one hundred foot level. 
It narrowed in a similar manner on the same level north 
of the shaft. The ore pile contained plenty of rock in 
which gold was visible. 



56 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Sn a iTdges" Parallel with the Taylor mine, on the east, are nu- 
merous heavy quartz ledges, containing a more highly 
glazed quartz, comparatively barren. 

The Taylor vein is distinctly traced toward the south 
for a distance of half a mile to the 

(23).— EOSECEANS' MINE, 
Form of Which has been only prospected at the surface. One 

seam dig- . 

gings. quarter of a mile further south, the same vein, along 

with the trap accompanying it on the west, is found in 
the form of porphyry and seam diggings, and has been 
hydrauliced off to the extent of opening a pit twenty by 
twenty feet, and ten feet in depth, with favorable re- 
sults. A quartz vein, supposed to be an extension of 
the Taylor, accompanies the belt about fifty feet east of 
this pit. 

(24).— CAEOTHEES' DIGGINGS. 

Related Continuing still farther south in the same general 

seam dig- 
gings, strike, at a point about a mile west of Johntown, on the 

easterly slope of a hill, Mr. Carothers has struck good 
pay, and done some work, in prospecting a seam-belt, 
which appears to be similar in character to the Green- 
wood seams. It is said to have a large porphyry ledge 
on the southwest side of the best pay streak, which is 
itself a decomposed porphyry. 

(25).— THE ISABEL MINE, 

solid vein. Owned by Brewster, of Placerville, shows a quartz 
vein of three to five feet in width, situated in the same 
general strike of the slates, a mile or two north of St. 
Lawrence ville, and dipping easterly 70°. The course of 
the vein is south 27° east. Mr. Derby, a resident 



MINING. 57 

miner, believes it to be an extension of the Gopher 
mine, between Placerville and Uniontown, and on the 
same fissure as the Taylor mine. It has been worked 
to a depth of eighty feet, where the vein maintained a 
width of from three to Hyo feet. 

At the Isabel Mill, one quarter of a mile south of the Rich bine 

x ledge. 

mine, there is what is known as the Blue Ledge, on 
which a shaft has been sunk to a depth of one hundred 
and twenty-eight feet. Enough money was taken out of 
this to pay for the erection of the Isabel Mill. It is a 
small vein of quartz, from six to eight inches wide; 
course, south 5° east; and contains galena and iron sul- 
phurets. It has a decomposed zone of slates on the 
east, about forty feet wide. 

(26).— THE ST. LAWKENCE QUAKTZ MINE 
Has been mined to a depth of six hundred feet, where True fissure 

vein. 

there is a fine vein. It follows, in general, the strike 
of the slates, as plotted on the map, and establishes for 
itself the character of a true fissure vein by its variation 
in detail from the bedding of the slates; cutting across 
them diagonally occasionally, but following the strike 
in the main. 

The lenticular masses of quartz described in this mine, Lenticular 

± quartz 

along with the associated stringers or seams running 
off into the slates on one side, are so characteristic 
of both the seam-belts and quartz mines of Georgetown 
Divide in general, that the character of the St. Law- 
rence may be referred to as typical, geologically, of the 
veins and seam-belts on the Divide. Following, in most 
cases, some well-marked fissure, yet not uniformly pre- 
cisely with the bedding of the slates, with accompany- 
ing metamorphism and branching of seams .and string- 



58 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

ers peculiar to the vein chemistry of the slates; I have 
set them down as in part, at least, true fissure veins. 
(See under IV, Geology.) 

The following longitudinal and cross sections of the 
vein fully develope the fact that the quartz occurs in 
lenticular forms, not continuing for any great distance, 
but invariably found to come in again in similar bodies 
lying along the main fissure. 
Gouge and At a depth of five hundred and fifty feet in the main 

slickensid.es 

shaft the quartz had entirely given out, and gouge took 
its place, following an exceedingly well-marked foot 
wall. On the five hundred foot level, at a distance of 
one hundred and sixty feet north of the shaft, the quartz 
gave out, and there was in its place a five-foot gouge, 
showing slickensides on both walls. Before giving out 
in this direction, the quartz jumped several times from 
the hanging wall to the foot wall, and vice versa. Eve- 
rywhere else throughout the mine slickensides were 
noted. 
original ns- ^ ne f ooi WCL ^ * s everywhere the strongest throughout 
the mine. The hanging wall is occasionally, to all ap- 
pearance, repeated two or three times in parallel slick- 
ensides, seen in the gouge on the hanging wall, which 
run off at regular angles and inclose bodies of slate, 

Philosophy 

of the separated by little lenses and stringers of quartz. At 

M, for example, on the hanging wall, the gouge is full of 
these seams; and there is no distinct line of demarka- 
tion between the vein and the slates. The vein mate- 
rial appears to branch off into the slates. 

characteris- Wherever the quartz in these side stringers pinches 
out, the fissure along which it was formed runs uniform- 
ly down to the foot wall. At this point (M) the lense 
of quartz is on the increase as you go down, attaining 



MINING. 59 

its greatest width about thirty feet lower; after which 
it wedges out gradually as far as the five hundred foot 
level, as represented. 

Mr. Cocking, the underground foreman, states that 
they have never gotten into any regular hanging wall, so 
far as he has known. 

There are two chutes of quartz below the three hun- 
dred foot level. Above the three hundred foot level 
they run together into one. 

Where the quartz runs out on the north, at L, J, and 
A, the characteristic of gouge coming in to take its 
place is everywhere the same, and precisely as observed 
at the north extremity of the four hundred foot level. 



60 



GEOBGETOWN DIVIDE. 



(geound plan.) 
.300 feet. 




Fig. 19.-HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SECTIONS OF THE ST. 
LAWRENCE QUARTZ MINE. 

The zig-zag lines represent quartz on the different levels, the out- 
lines of which are indicated by the faint white line in the form of a 
double kidney. 

A— 2 feet gouge. 

B — 3 feet gouge. 

G — 3 feet gouge. 

J) — \% foot gouge; 5 feet of quartz. 

E—V-A foot gouge. • 



MINING. 61 

F—2 feet gouge. 
G — 4 feet gouge . 
H — 2 feet gouge. 
J — 4 feet gouge. 
K— 2 feet gouge. 
L — 2 feet gouge. 
If— Gouge in hanging wall, full of quartz seams; largest body of 

quartz 8 feet. 
N— 

P — 2 feet gouge. 

Q— Gouge along foot wall of vein from 1 to 3 feet; average 1 ft. 
R — Croppings. 
8 — Boarding house. 

(27).— SMITH'S LEAD, 

(1 in the preceding figure) is a parallel vein, situated ^f n °^ e a - n . 
about one hundred yards east of the St. Lawrence. It 
is traced from the top of the St. Lawrence Hill, at a 
number of points, by means of shafts on the surface, 
and is opened longitudinally by a tunnel, seven hun- 
dred feet deep, from Irish Creek, half a mile north- 
northeast of the St. Lawrence Mill, where Cincinnati 
Kavine, a branch of Irish Creek, cuts through the St. 
Lawrence system of veins, several hundred feet lower 
than at the mine. 

The north and east base of St. Lawrence Hill, iust Pla ? er ° on - 

■ J centration. 

above the tunnel, is strewn with vein-boulders from 
local veins and stringers on both sides of Cincinnati 
Bavine — the recipient of the metal accompanying this 
vein material, which, accordingly, paid very largely in 
placer mining days. 

(28).— THE DONCASTEK MINE 

Is situated on the apex of a quartz hill, a mile south- Heavy 

quartz vein 

southeast of the St. Lawrence mine. The shaft is andassocia- 
ninety feet deep, on a vein of decomposed quartz, strik- 
ing north 28° west, and dipping at the surface west 80°. 
Fifty feet west of the shaft there is an enormous parallel 
quartz vein, not less than twenty feet wide at the sur- 



ted seams. 



62 • GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

face, which also dips at the surface about 80° west. 
The worked vein has a distinct gouge at the foot wall, 
and a quartz vein eight inches wide. In an open cut 
from the Doncaster shaft-house toward the valley on 
the east, I observed the peculiar bend of the slates at 
the surface, which accounts for the westerly dip in the 
shaft and adjacent quartz ledge on the surface. 

One third of a mile east of the Doncaster mine, across 
the Kelsey road, there is a prominent quartz ledge 
striking in the same course, situated two hundred yards 
south-southeast from Martin's store. It is considered 
barren. 
Paying. The pay in the Doncaster mine is said to be very 

good. Nobody knows the exact yield, but as Mr. Don- 
caster says he works on seams only when it pays, and 
as he pays his hands regularly every week from the re- 
sources of his mine, the presumption is that the repu- 
tation is deserved. 

(29).— KELSEY'S. 

seams in The stage road from Georgetown to Placerville fol- 

siates. lows, frOm Martin's store to Kelsey's, the strike of the 

slates, which dip everywhere 75° to 80° east, and are 
intercalated with quartz veins and seams generally un- 
decomposed, and in many places prospected by shafts, 
tunnels, and washings along the ravines. 
Beit of Two or three hundred yards west of Kelsey's there is 

metamor- J 

positfo e ns m * a decomposed serpentine belt resembling Greenwood 
porphyry, crossed in going from Kelsey's to Rich Flat. 
This has every appearance of being related to the Don- 
caster and St. Lawrence Hill vein-belt, and might be- 
long to the Sailor Flat and Upper Johntown belt, if the 
metam orphic zones could be shown to be continuous for 
that distance. 



MINING. 



63 



The Gopher Mine, at Kelsey's, is said to have yielded Led s e - 
some rock worth $30 a ton. Marshall & Co. have run 
a tunnel over two hundred feet long into the seam belt. 
The principal vein near town is about three feet wide, 
and consists of longitudinal intercalations with thin 
films of slate. The surface of the country has been 
washed away clean. 

In the hills to the east of Kelsey's there are some nm Ledges. 
very large quartz ledges parallel to the general trend. 
Three quarters of a mile east, at the head of Chunk 
Eavine, havers, and others of San Francisco, have 
sunk a prospecting shaft ninety feet deep. Southeast- 
erly from Kelsey's, high up in the hills, is situated the 
Excelsior Mine. None of these have, I believe, so far, 
yielded any pay above expenses. 

(30).— SEAM AND VEIN MINES ON PLACERVILLE DIVIDE- 
GEOGRAPHICAL KELATIONS. 

On the south side of the South Fork, in the vicinity Sea m and 

Porphyry 

of Placerville, there is a continuation of the seams and Diggings. 
vein-belts of Georgetown Divide, with all their charac- 
teristics and peculiarities. A decomposed belt in the 
same strike of the slates as Kelsey's crosses the main 
street of Placerville at the Court House. The most 
noted seam-mining locality in the vicinity of Placerville 
is where Fisk, Sanders and Gilbert, took out large sums 
of money at the north end of Quartz Hill, about a mile 
from town. 

The general seam zone on both Divides, consisting of Large Bcale 
metamorphic or decomposed matter in the neighbor- Mother 

Lode. 

hood of extensive quart veins, continues in the same 
strike to the Amador Mine on Sutter Creek, from which 
point the "mother lode" of the middle mining coun- 
ties is plainly traceable in a further general continua- 



64 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



tion as far as Mariposa County. The location of the 
latter was plotted by me in 1871, on the mining counties 
map in the Geological Survey office, from the borders 
of El Dorado County, south. 
connection Mr. Burlingham, Superintendent of the Taylor Quartz 
nSl? r Mine, an experienced miner who has been over the 
country, and has especially observed the strike and 
continuation of the slates and seams, thinks that the 
identical belt on which Placerville is located, continues 
across the North Fork of the Mokelumne at King's 
Fork Junction and the South Fork of the Mokelumne 
at Bacon's Bridge, continuing thence through Plymouth 
to the Amador Mine. 
Points While the identical continuation is not a matter so 

uncertain, easily made out, nor indeed very probable, the con- 
tinuation of quartz ledges and of fissures and decom- 
posed " porphyry" belts, with seam deposits in places, 
of the character of Georgetown Divide, situated in the 
same general strike of the slates, and in the same trend 
of vein formation and of chemical concentration of 
gold — in short, geologically identical rather than physi- 
cally continuous — is a question admitting of no further 
doubt. It is assuming too much, however, to under- 
take to trace any where, for more than two or three 
miles, a perfect unbroken continuation of the identical 
veins, or seams, or "porphyry" belts on Georgetown 
or Placerville Divide. The general system, the geolo- 
gical position, and the chemical conditions of concen- 
tration and of precipitation of gold in connection with 
vein formation, are the same; which is all that can be 
said; and they are in continuation of the mother lode. 
So far as my observation goes in the region repre- 
sented by the accompanying map, the trap or green 



Dykes. 



Both East 
anc 1 West. 



MINING. 

stone "porphyry" accompanying the seam belts was 
not continuous, in the form of an "eruptive" dyke, 
which could be traced for any distance. There are 
occasional combs of 'metamorphism which have given 
shape to the hills, rising up in the form of undenuded 
crests. 

Mr. Burlingham says he has observed that at the 
Taylor Quartz Mine he has trap to the west of the vein 
in which he is working; while at Placerville it is on the 
east, and at the crossing of the North Fork of the 
Mokolumne there is trap on the west again, which con- 
tinues thence by way of Negro Hill and east of Nash- 
ville, between the two forks of the Mokelumne, always 
on the west side of the seam zone as far as the Amador 
Mine. 

Mr. Derby, of Isabeltown, says he has observed that companion 

" porphyry" 

on the Placerville Divide there is a porphyry streak, led s e - 
east of what he believes to be a continuation of the 
mother lode adjoining the Hodge, Lemon and Fisk 
mines, on the north end of Quartz Hill. It is, accord- 
ing to his observation, about fifty feet distant from 
these mines, east, and runs parallel; the porphyry itself 
being two feet thick. The mother lode at this point he* 
measures as twenty-eight feet wide. [See sections 
below.] 

Mr. Rodda, Superintendent of the St. Lawrence opinions of 

Miners. 

Quartz Mine, agrees with Messrs. Burlingham and Der- 
by in the opinion that the Placerville and Dutch Creek 
veins, which strike through the Pacific Mine Hill, 
Quartz Hill, Poverty Point, Kelsey's, St. Lawrenceville, 
&c, constitute a continuation of the identical mother 
lode of Calaveras County. 

When it comes to the connections in detail, however, 
5 



6S GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

everybody disagrees, because there is no such connec- 
ont. tion. Like the "blue lead" of the ancient river sys- 

tem, it generally passes through the identical ground 
which is owned by the miner whose judgment is passed 
upon it. [See detail notes at Placerville, below.] 

The mines situated in this general zone are 

Between the South Fork of the American and the North 
Fork of the Mohelumne, the Grosch, Drew, Harmon, 
Sheppard, Pacific, Epley, Miller, Snyder, and numerous 
others. 

South of the North Fork of the Mohelumne, the Lucky, 
Baldwin, Bacon, &c. The Havilah, at Nashville, one 
mile west of the Baldwin, was, according to Burling- 
ham, the first quartz mine worked in this State. 

South of the South Fork of the Mohelumne the Enter- 
prise, the Hooper, and one or two others at Plymouth; 
and then the Hayward at Sutter Creek. 

VICINITY OF PLACEEVILLE. 



continuous- I examined only those in the vicinitv of Placerville. 

ness of J J 

phis a m.° r " That the soft, decomposed and metamorphosed slates 
and porphyry trend in belts showing parallelism and 
the same general longitudinal direction is evident. 
That they are in spots, and not necessarily connected, is 
the most reasonable conclusion to arrive at under the 
circumstances, the contrary not being apparent, nor 
capable of being demonstrated. 

On this Divide, as on Georgetown Divide, the quartz 
is disposed to pinch out in lenticular forms, and chim- 
neys, just like those on Georgetown Divide, and the 
ledges stand nearly vertical. 

hedges.. South of the Town of Placerville. The Mitchell 

Mine is nearest the town, being diagonally across the 



MINING. 



67 



road from the Court House; while the Epley, Pacific, 
and Harmon Mines, are probably on one continuous 
vein. The Mitchell and Poverty Point Mines may be 
a very little farther east in the same general zone of 
parallel veins. The Mitchell Mine has a knob of 
greenstone to the westward of it, forming the top of 
the hill south of, and in the rear of, the main street"* of 
Placerville. Ochery pockets, in connection with lentic- 
ular quartz, occur in it. 

The Geeman Company have run a tunnel from the 
east side into Quartz Hill, about 100 feet, and inter- 
sected on eighteen-inch quartz vein, which is succeeded 
on the west by a white "soap rock." A section across 
the hill at this point, shows the following structure : 

W 




Fig. 25. -SECTION ACROSS QUARTZ HILL, AT THE GERMAN 

MINE. 

A — Soft slates perfectly laminated and undecomposed. 

B — Decomposed slate and soap rock zone, fifty yards wide, every- 
where showing conformability to the dip of the slates. A few quartz 
veins of three or four inches thickness pass through it, striking N. E. 

C. — Quartz ledge, thirty-five feet wide, called the Mother Lode. 

D — Thirty feet of a yellow ferruginous crisp quartose rock, showing 
lines of slaty structure. 

E — Soft, soapy slates, without seams, continuing down the hill to the 
ditch. 

F— Dioritic trap masses, along quartz masses apparently related to 
the Fisk fissure. The strike of the quartz masses is very irregular; 
locally N. E; dip W. 100 yards south of the German Mine there is 
repeated a considerable body of irregular quartz trending E. and W. 
evidently an offshoot from the main vein in the hill, to open cut run- 
ning North and South in continuation of the Fisk cut fifty feet. 

G — Soft finely laminated slates to road, sixty yards . 






68 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



At the Pacific Mine, a little farther south, there 
are two well marked ledges on the surface, fifty or sixty 
feet apart, accompanied by hydrous magnesian min- 
erals and country rock, decomposed and metamor- 
phosed after the usual character of the seam -belts. 

The Brewster and LeMoile Mine, next south of 
the Pacific, shows an abundance of these. 

North of the town the slates strike north five to fifteen 
west, dipping east 60°. 

At the Fiske Mine, one quarter of a mile farther 
north, the worked vein strikes north 22J°west, and stands 
nearly vertical; on the surface, apparently dipping 80° 
west. A section across the same hill, at this point, 
shows the following repetition of the structure of the 
German mine, from which the continuousness of iden- 
tical geological features may be observed : 

W about V z mile E. 




Fig. 19.-SECTION ACROSS QUARTZ HILL AT FISKE MINE. 

A— Trap. , 

B — White, soft, soapy, steatitic, slate rock. 

G — Seam opened in cut for half a mile. 

B — Ked and yellow decomposed slates; half porphyry. 

E — Quartz vein . 

.F— Serpentine, etc., with trap masses in decomposed slate zone. 

G— Slates. 

H — Position of the Harmon & Gross ledges. 

open cut. The Hodge and Lemon Mine is an extension of the 
Fiske, forming the extreme north end of Quartz Hill. 
Seam mining has been carried on here to such an ex- 



MINING. 69 

tent as to lay open to daylight half a mile of the prin- 
cipal seam or pay-vein of the district running in the 
strike of the slates. For several hundred yards an 
open cut exists, from 30 to 40 feet deep, with contin- 
uations in shafts, levels, and drifts under ground. 

There are cross veins on the Hode:e & Lemon " p orphy- 

o ry." 

ground dipping north 40°. Where these strike the foot 
wall or east wall of the porphyry, the pay is rich. They 
do not cut into the east wall of the vein at all. Por- 
phyry is the designation here given to the vein-matter 
in the fissure itself. It is about four feet wide at the 
end of the hill. 

The following is a natural or view section of Poverty 
Point from the Fiske mine, showing the continuation of 
the Fiske, Hodge & Lemon cut, on the north side of 
Big Canon, through Poverty Point Hill : 




Fig. 26.-POVERTY POINT, LOOKING NORTH. 

A— Open cut running up the hill. A Spaniard, formerly working at 
point A, in the bed of the ravine, is said to have obtained and carried 
away, on one occasion, "a mule load of gold." He returned many 
years after, and again prospered for a time. 

B— Ledges of quartz and trap. 

C — Shaft house, mine on Poverty Point. 

D — Soapstone belt, where prospecting shafts have been sunk. 

The Mother Lode.— The strongest central body of fn g co v S w ' 
quartz represented in the section, at the German mine, 
is considered by the miners (Mr. Marston, for example, 
whom I found at work here, and others) as the real 
mother vein of the southern counties; along the west 
side of which are situated the Epley, Pacific, Harmon, 



70 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Slieppard, and Gross mines, and along the east side, the 
Mitchell, etc. 

The Gross lline, on Big Canon, one half a mile 
northwest of the Fiske mine, shows a ledge two inches 
to six feet wide, bearing rock containing $160 to the 
ton. It has been prospected for a distance of 1,000 
feet. 

The mother lode of Quartz Hill appears to strike to- 
ward the little flat just west of the road on the top of 
hill, at Kelsey's, and to be as near as possible in the 
same line of strike as the Doncaster and St. Lawrence 
mines. On the stage road from Kelsey's to Big Canon 
Bridge, I observed, accordingly, in this zone, a section 
showing the character of its continuation in depth 
1,000 feet lower than the hill at Kelsey's, and about 
1,100 feet lower than the section at the German mine. 
No very heavy ledge is visible on the north side of the 
river, where the road descends. The quartz veins ob- 
served in the canon of the South Fork resembled those 
Kelsey's and St. Lawrenceville. 

(31.)- SAILOK FLAT AND UPPEK JOKNTOWN. 

Geological . . 

position. Returning to Georgetown Divide, and continuing 

eastward across the slates, we come next to the mines 
of Empire and Manhattan Canons, Sailor Flat, Jones' 
Hill, etc. These are situated nearly in the strike of 
the slates of Kelsey's; I was unable to determine in 
my own mind, without a more careful examination, 
whether the latter would strike in this direction, or to- 
ward Spanish Dry Diggings . 

and shafts™ The Sailor Flat mines have not been worked to any 
depth. Surface washing extends along this ravine for 
several miles, and numerous shafts and tunnels of ex- 



MINING. < 

ploration, the history of which it is now next to impos- 
sible to trace, are observable at every hand. 

The point between Empire and Manhattan ravines is 
quartz seamed, the slates striking north 15° west. It is 
mined by hydraulic agency at two places — the Castile 
and the Hart mines. 

At the Castile Mine there is a fissure or ore-chan- ore chan- 
nel. 

nel similar to that of the Nagler mine at Greenwood, 
having two three-foot veins of decomposed material, 
separated by three and one half feet of slate. It is hy- 
draulicecl off 100 by 70 feet, and 18 feet in depth, the 
sluices draining east-northeast into Empire Creek, 
which is distant about 16 chains east. 

The Castile mine is the first of the series between 
Empire and Manhattan canons, met with in traveling 
from Garden Valley toward the Georgetown and Green- 
wood road. 

The Haet Mine has on the surface a seam formation, Vein - 
about 80 feet wide, which has been hydrauliced out 
longitudinally twice that distance to a width of 50 feet. 
At a depth of 95 feet, explored by shaft, the seams 
come together (according to Mr. Blasdel) in a nearly 
solid mass of quartz, over eight feet wide. It is several 
hundred yards north-northeast of the Castile mine, and 
has had washed off about 175 by 50 feet, and 40 feet in 
depth, of scarcely altered slate. 

The Crane's Gulch, or Whitesides Mine is also in SSm3! 
unaltered slates, in a seam-belt which shows several 
strong parallel veins running through the middle of the 
mine in the usual direction. Owing to the course of 
the gulch, hydraulicing has been done crosswise of the 
belt. The pit trends in a southeastly and northwesterly 



72 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

direction. About 150 by 250 feet, and 70 feet in depth, 
has been washed out, which yielded $100,000. 

Jones' Hill Seam Diggings are situated on the south 
side of Jones' Ravine, just across the ravine from the 
Jones' Hill gravel mines. (See under Gravel Mines 
and Yield.) 

(32.)— THE SWIFT AND BENNETT MINE, 

&elms s ^ n ^ G southern limits of Georgetown, is situated in a 

very narrow decomposed belt. It has recently paid 
largely. A rich deposit, containing ic $1 to the pan," 
was struck near the road, 200 feet south of the upper 
working, at the end of the new tunnel, a distance of 98 
feet from its mouth. 

(33.)— THE WOODSIDE LEDGE, 
Quartz lens. Situated in Georgetown, is in the same range as the 
Swift & Bennett and the Keefer ledges. It stands 
nearly vertical, having a perpendicular shaft on the 
ledge. Both hanging and foot walls are unaltered slate. 
It was worked to a depth of 100 feet some years ago, 
and also intersected with an incline 80 feet from the 
surface at right angles from the west side. The vein is 
in general two feet wide — sometimes three feet or four 
feet — and is in the character of a succession of kidneys 
some of which are very rich. At the bottom of the 
shaft there was a drift vein 30 feet north, where the 
quartz still continued, while near the surface, on run- 
ning north, the quartz pinched out. 

The pay was in a chimney north of the shaft, which 
pitched north 30 feet in 110 feet, and was in the form 
of spangles or grains of fine gold, with occasionally a 
chunk of gold. Five or six inches of gold would hang 
together. The mine is unworked, being drowned out. 



Pay chim 
ney. 



MINING. 



73 



(34.)— THE KEEFER LEDGE, 

Like the Whitesides, runs with the strike of the slates, 
and dips to the east about eight feet in 100 feet. It 
has been opened 140 feet deep, where the Georgia slide 
road crosses it. From the Keef er Mill Eavine a tunnel 
was brought in, which intersected the ledge at a depth 
of 25 or 30 feet. Size of the ledge at tunnel, eight 
inches or nine inches on one side, and two and one half 
to three feet on the other side of the tunnel. (State- 
ment of Cushman, a miner, before the mine was closed.) 




Fig. 27.-KEEFER LEDGE, GEORGETOWN. 

A — Vein at tunnel, containing a body of quartz eight inches on one 
side and two and one half feet on the other; gouge of 18 inches on the 
hanging wall. 

B — Kich streak of quartz parallel to the main vein, 14 feet east of it. 

At a depth of 140 feet a little drift was run off to the 
east, the ledge having pinched out, though the gouge was 
still there. Fourteen feet from the main vein a little 
parallel streak of quartz was found, which was rich in 
gold. Then they run on the gouge 50 or 60 feet, and 
there was quartz above, but none in the drift. They 
drifted also two or three feet toward the north — and quit 



74: 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



work. A good deal of quartz was crushed at the Keef er 
mill, which paid. It all came from the ledge at a point 
near where the tunnel struck it. 



(35.)— GEORGIA SLIDE-VEINS. 

These diggings have paid largely, as elsewhere stat- 
ed, for twenty years. There are three sets of seams in a 
country of metamorphic " porphyry." 

The position of the two systems of veins, etc., is rep- 
resented in the following plan. 




Fig. 28.--DIAGRAM OF GEORGIA SLIDE, 

EMBRACING TWO HUNDRED YARDS EAST AND WEST, IN A ZONE OF DECOM- 
POSED LIGHT COLORED SLATE, IN PLACES METAMORPHOSED INTO DIO- 
RITIC PORPHYRY, AND AGAIN PARTIALLY DECOMPOSED. 

A — Town of Georgia Slide. 
B — Parson's claim. 
G — Beatty claim. 
D — Pacific claim. 
E— Mill. 

B F — Zone of blue soapy slate. 

.F-"Sand streak" filling fissures of Vein System No. 1, and, 
like the quartz, jumping from one fissure to another. 
1--Vein System No. 1; strike NE, dip NW 45°. 
2 — Vein System No. 2, smaller and nearly vertical; strike NW. 
3 — Vein System No. 3, in the strike of the slates, NNW; dip E 75°. 

The strike of the slates is south 5° east, dipping east 



MINING . 

75°. Yein system No. 1, in the Parsons claim, strikes 
northeasterly, and clips northwest 45°. In the easterly 
extension of the Parsons claim there are prominent sev- 
veral parallel dikes of "sand-rock," striking north 27° 
east, and standing vertically where I saw them. 

The Pay is fonnd on the side of the quartz, away 
from the sand-streaks, when these follow close along 
the veins of Yein System No. 1. 

Ordinarily the principal pay, at B, is found at the 
junction of the two systems of veins (1 and 3), in pock- 
ets represented at A, Fig. 29. 



75 




Fig. 25.-SECTION AT POINT B, EST PARSON'S MINE, 

SHOWING CHABACTEKISTICS OF JUNCTION OF VEIN SYSTEMS NO. 1 AND NO. 3. 

Sulphurets are found all through the adjacent slates. 

Vein System, No. 2. — The following profile, taken cross veins 

01 affected by 

from a point in the Beatty Claim, just in the rear of JJ^sStei 
the quartz mill at E, Figure 30, looking north, illus- 
trates the peculiar character of the quartz veins of Sys- 



76 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Two para- 
lell veins. 



tern No. 2. The quartz runs for a while along the strike 
of the slates, and then jumps along irregular bendings 
to another parallel stratum or bench. 




Sand 
Btreaks. 



Fig. 26.— SECTION IN BEATTY MINE, 

SHOWING THE MANNER OF FORMATION OF QUARTZ KIDNEYS. 

1 — Yein system No. 1. 

3- Quart kidneys conforming to Vein System No. 3 in part. 

A — Lines of stratification. 

E — Quartz mill. 

B — Style of occurrence of croppings. 

(36.)— THE BLASDEL MINE, 

On Dark Canon, is on a seam-belt, having all the 
general characteristics of other seam- belts on the Di- 
vide. There are two hydraulic pits open on the north 
side of the hill 175 feet apart. Between these and ex- 
tending over the hill for 2,000 feet north and south, 
prospecting shafts and cuts have been dug at intervals, 
demonstrating the existence of pay through the entire 
zone. There are two main veins or seam zones, each 
about eight feet wide. The most westerly vein or zone 
shows a series of " sand streaks " running east and west, 
dipping south 24°. The westerly decomposed quartz 



MINING. 



77 



Maguesian 
minerals. 



vein is eight inches wide on the top of the hill; the 

easterly one ten inches. Both dip toward the east with 

the slates, nearly vertical. In this same range, across 

Canon Creek, are other seam diggings, which I did not 

visit. 

(37.)— BALD HILL. 

The Maddox mine, on the southerly slope of Little 

Bald Hill, now worked by Frank Alters, is situated in 

a region of great metamorphism, the effects of which 

are observable to the summit of Bald Hill. A great 

variety of minerals are here found: crystallized gold, 

horn-blend, asbestos, actinolite, serpentine, talc, etc. cross-course 

pockets. 

The porphyry and vein courses, in crossing each other, 
form rich pockets or chimneys. The principal geologi- 
cal features are represented in the following diagram, 
from information furnished me by Mr. Alters : 




Fig. 37.— DIAGRAM OF THE MADDOX MINE, 

EMBRACING ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YARDS, EAST AND WEST. 

D — Slates. Alter's house. 

CC — Outline of surface washings of Alter's mine. The principal cut 
E is along a three inch seam of asbestos, occurring along with quartz in 
lenticular masses. The lines designated by E' are cross courses of 
asbestos and quartz, which do not, however, continue to the west of the 
vein E . The principal pay in this mine is found at the intersections 
EE 7 , and E'A // , where numerous shafts have been dug. 

A — Sand streak or " porphyry" in strike of slates, dip E 60° ; 

A' -Sand streak or "porphyry," parallel. 

k" — Cross course of porphyry. 

B — Soap rock, in the hanging wall of A. 

B' — Soap rock in the foot wall of A'. 

C,C — Green magnesia rocks; being ametamorphic zinc of the slates; 
rich in sulphurets of iron along the asbestos and quartz seams; 600 
yards. 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Pay in an E. 
& W ledge. 



Lenticular 
Quartz, in 



(38.)— CLIPPER LEDGES. 

At the Clipper Mine there are two ledges. The best 
paying ledge runs nearly east and west, and dips south 
45° A shaft has been sunk 115 feet. The vein is twenty 
inches to two feet wide, and in bunches and lenticular 
masses, sometimes four or five feet wide, sometimes as 
small as six or eight inches. A well developed gouge 
accompanies it. The main ledge, however, runs north 
northeast and dips east about 15 feet in 100, having a 
width of two feet and over. It is considered barren. 
Although these courses correspond approximately to 
similar courses in Georgia slide, the dip in each case 
varies. 

(39.)— VOLCANO VILLE. 

The McKusick Ledge, near Volcanoville, runs with the 
slates, locally at least, north 20 west, and dips southwest 
75° or 80°. It is two and a half or three feet w T ide ; in 
some places four or five feet; in others again only one 
foot. A shaft has been sunk on the ledge to a depth of 
90 feet and a tunnel run in 100 feet lower from the 
southeast. At the point of intersection by the tunnel 
the ledge was only one foot wide; but on drifting along 
it 78 feet towards the north it widened to five feet; 
while in drifting the same distance towards the south it 
decreased to nothing, though the ivalls remained per- 
fect, and from two and a half to three feet apart, filled 
with gouge. The foot-wall is the best defined. The 
rock pays from $13 to $14 a ton. 



Metamor- 
phic belt 



(40).— THE TRENCH LEDGE, 
Several hundred yards north-northwest of the McKu- 
sick ledge, on Quartz Canon, runs north 5° west, dip- 
ping east 45°, along a metamorphic, trappean belt, 



MINING. 79 

which accompanies it on the west, with serpentine be- 
yond; and is from one foot to six feet in width, vary- 
ing. On the east are slates. This mine was made 
famous, in the early days of quartz mining, from the 
circumstance of a sheet of gold having been found on 
it, lying very nearly horizontal. When worked, it paid 
$70 a ton. Many small veins and strings of quartz run 
off from the main ledge. The gold was generally found 
in isolated nests and bunches, of extraordinary rich- 
ness. 

4.— EXTEACTION AND BEDUCTION. 

(a).— EXTRACTION AND REDUCTION COMBINED, BY NEW 
METHODS. 

The means, methods, and costs of extraction in gen- Economy in 

practiced 

eral vary greatly, always according to the nature of the methods. 
deposit which is exploited. In beds of coal and iron 
ore, lying flat, or very thick, and in ordinary ledges of 
any width, the precedents of successful working have 
been so common, both here and elsewhere, as to have 
reduced the economy of mining on the Pacific Coast, 
by this time, to a science, peculiar to our conditions. 
[For costs, etc., see Tabular Exhibit, Subdivision V.] 
A great school of practical men and experts has been 
built up ; in both branches of extraction and reduction. 

But new conditions, new necessities, and the appli- where the 

' Lr old methods 

cation of new principles, are constantly revolutionizing 
things. Hydraulic mining heads, of from 400 to 1,000 
feet pressure vertical, invented by daring men to trans- 
port cubic acres through tunnels — like the camel through 
the eye of the needle — are not at this day quite as 
hair- brained a conception as old school pit-miners and 
hydraulic engineers once would have considered them. 
The principle of hydraulicing out the veins of Mother 



•would not 
pay. 



80 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



New adopt- 
ions of 
means to 
end. 



Successful 
results. 



Method per- 
sued at 
Georgia 
slide. 



Earth herself ; of tearing down and transporting trie 
bedrock slate, with all that in them is, has been applied 
on Georgetown Divide, in violence to all preconceived 
notions. (See under " Water as applied to Mining," 
Subdivision Y.) Employed for a specific purpose — the 
gathering in of all the benefits of Nature's work upon 
these extraordinary ore-channels, and laying open pre- 
liminarily for following down the richest deposits into 
depths, beyond the reach of the pipe, wherever it may 
pay — the conception is as thoroughly practical as it is 
original and bold. It is applicable only in the moun- 
tains, of course, where there is the advantage of an 
abundant grade. To the miners of Georgia Slide is due 
the merit of inaugurating and of carrying on success- 
fully, upon a grand scale, this novel method of vein 
mining during seventeen years past. And to the ap- 
preciation of the resources of Georgetown Divide by 
James P. Pierce, along with the methods of getting at 
them by the application of agencies which cost noth- 
ing, yet are unlimited in the forces and quantities 
applicable, is due the credit of such development b} T 
the California Water Company of the resources of the 
country, as their operations described in this Report, 
may promise. 

Georgia Slide for a long time constituted the only 
"seam diggings " in the country. These mines were 
discovered from Georgia Flat, near the bed of Canon 
Creek, where a portion of the hill had slidden down 
from the seam-belt. The pay as found, is regular and 
easily followed. 

The method of working is by hydraulicing, combined 
with shafting and drifting, wherever the local deposit is 
unusually rich. Subsequently the side seams and the 



MINING. 81 

entire country rock, thus opened up, are piped down as 
far as there is any outlet grade. 

The Parsons claim has been worked in this manner 
for twelve years. It was originally the Webster claim. 
Before this character and method of mining were under- 
derstood, it had been abandoned by the original owners 
as worthless. 

Hydraulicing has paid well at the French Hill mine, 
Greenwood; at the Davis claim, Spanish Dry Diggings; 
at the St. Lawrence mine, Greenwood; and it has paid 
steadily from the first at Georgia Slide, where there is 
grade enough left to continue mining by this process 
for many years to come. 

(c).— PRINCIPLES OBSERVED TOUCHING UNDERGROUND 
EXTENSION. 

In underground extensions, of course, there can be no under- 
ground ex- 
difference in this from ordinary quartz mining, as to tension, 

principles employed. Nor is there any difference of 
principle in seam hydraulicing, so long as it continues 
above ground, from ordinary gravel mining. The con- 
ditions of seam mining differ from gravel mining in 
this: 

1. That you cannot proceed to wash away the whole Limits to 

hydraulic- 
hill indiscriminately; for you would only be washing in s- 

away barren country in one case, while in another 

the fine gold, or the nugget boulders, would be swept 

wholesale through the sluices. 

•2. That your pay does not run along the surface of Payrunniug 

horizontally 

the earth horizontally, like the gravel deposits, but con- Jjjj verti - 
tinues vertically, in a narrow pay channel of quartz 
seams, related to some well-defined fissure or wall, 
which sometimes cuts off all seams on the one side, and 
always pitches at a steep angle. 
6 



82 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

deposits pay 3' H y° u follow the pay under the ground, it is not 
always closely confined within two perfect walls, but 
often disseminated in a space of from twenty to fifty 
feet on the one side, or on the other, of the main fis- 
sures. It is generally in association with a series of 
lenticular masses of quartz, lying or crossing parallel 
to each other, and having the same dip; and in the 
form of pay chimneys, located where some other system 
of courses of quartz veinlets, or porphyry, crosses the 
former. Although these courses are continuous in 
threads, the tendency to form lenticular masses makes 
pockets of quartz at the crossings, and the gold depos- 
its are accordingly in the form either of sheets, chim- 
neys, or pockets. 

(&).— PRINCIPLES OBSERVED IN SEAM MINING. 
where it is, i n order to discover and disembowel these sheets, 

there it is. 

chimneys, and pockets, wherever found, only one rule 
of mining applies, viz : to follow the deposit, wherever 
you find it, to whithersoever it leads. 

If you are near the surface, and the ground is decom- 
posed, or the pay deposits are numerously and widely 
distributed, it is a very economical method to remove 
the entire hill with water, which does the sorting and 
separating in the act of moving. (See Concentration, 
under Practical Considerations, Sub. VIII.) 
Framework. As soon as the deposit is beyond the reach of the 
water, the pay must be followed down by shafts in the 
usual way, and prospecting levels along the strike of 
the belt, connected with prospecting drifts right and 
left, at right angles to the lenticular masses you are in 
search of. These must be systematically run ahead, in 



MINING. 83 

order to discover the pay wherever it has been inter- 
rupted. 

Often these lenses measure only a few feet each way; ^^j ^ 8 
no less frequently they measure forty feet in length and depoeit - 
depth, and a few feet in thickness. Hence, the shafts, 
levels, and drifts ought not to be more than forty to 
sixty feet apart at the farthest; the drifts being located 
at such points in the shafts and levels as may seem 
most promising to intersect the principal pay seams. 
The latter are then to be followed as long as the pay 



Doubtless there are plenty of seams in the countrv Permanent 

x d J mining. 

which will develop into something like regularity and 
certainty in the nature of these deposits. So that, as 
soon as these seams are thoroughly understood, mining 
may be pursued permanently in them with profit. 

(d). — DO THE SEAMS CONTINUE IN DEPTH, OR UNITE INTO A 
SINGLE VEIN? 



to 
justify min- 



This becomes a question of great importance. It Sufficient 
matters little whether the pay is found in a solid quartz ing 
vein, or in lenticular masses. The question is whether 
it is continuous and regular in depth, and sufficiently 
confined, or concentrated in character, to justify follow- 
ing it with shafts, levels, and drifts. As this is a ques- 
tion which only the local conditions of mining and the 
character and richness of the seams themselves can 
solve, the best solution I could give of it in this Report 
was to furnish a particular description of the character 
of the several deposits, in the mines I visited. The geo- 
logical sections observed answer it so far as erosion to 
1,000 feet depth is able to testify. 

In the tabular statement following, there are many re- 



4 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

cases cited, peated instances of veins uniting in depth, and espe- 
cially of the " companion talcose vein," which in many 
particulars resembles the seam diggings, uniting with 
the mother lode in depth. 

how facts if anv f these mines, or related mines of the Divide 

answer the ■' ' 

firmttTveiy!" which I have described, are in good repute as paying 
mines, then the question answers itself affirmatively, in 
all that is of any consequence to the miner. If they 
are found abandoned, the chances are still even that it 
is owing to the miners' most common and well-known 
lack of that quality which is also lacking in poets — the 
capacity to do business unimaginatively. 

(e).— REDUCTION BY CONCENTRATION AND CHLORINATION. 

te°rM d ofthe ^- T THE Beatty Claim, Georgia Slide, there is a ftve- 
gings. dlg " stamp mill, which was erected many years ago. It is 
used occasionally to crush accumulated nugget rock, 
sorted aside from the hydraulic pits. Great judgment, 
and even skill and experience if possible, in the arts 
and methods of separation and concentration, are requi- 
site for the proper treatment of the material of the seam 
diggings, before or after it goes into the sluices. 

items of At the Cedarberg Mine there is a ten-stamp mill, 

which crushes ten tons a day (yield $475), at a total 
cost for fuel, labor, and running, of $20 per day, or at 
the rate of $2 per ton. Cost of mill, at usual prices, 
$6,000; actual cost to the company (having been put 
together second hand) was only $1,700. The mill has 
a fifteen-horse power boiler and engine, though an 
eight-horse power would do. Total employes in mill 
and mine, 26; wages, $3 per day. 

There is also a five-stamp mill at Jones' Hill, owned 
by Hall, Beebe & Co. 



cost, 



MINING. 



85 



At Yolcanoville there is a ten-stamp mill, owned by 
Maurice Dore. (For mills in the county generally, see 
under VII, Financial and Statistical.) 

On the Eueeka Ledge, the first northern extension suiphurets. 
of the Whiteside mine, Georgetown, the sulphurets 
were saved some years ago, and assayed with care. 
They yielded from $75 to $2,700 a ton, including at the 
latter figure, of course, some of the free gold as well. 
For a time this ledge and mill, in 1870, paid at the rate 
of 25 ounces per week. 

Items and Costs of Crushing. — It will be easy to mem- Average re- 

suits from 

orize that stamps weigh 500 pounds: drop 50 times per statistics in 

J. o • a ? a J- proportion 

minute; fall, one foot; require each one horse power to toexecutlon 
crush one ton in twenty-four hours ; consuming one 
tenth of a cord of hard wood, worth half a dollar, per 
ton crushed; that water power costs just half as much; 
and that the labor item is three fourths of the cost of 
milling. But the average weight of stamps is some- 
where between 500 and 1,000 pounds, while the speed, 
execution, and costs are in the same proportion; so that 
for every 100 pounds of stamp there are crushed 100 
pounds in half a day (of six working hours). 

From Deetkens' figures, in "U. S. Mineral Eesources, 
1873," the most elaborate and reliable ever prepared in 
California, being based upon operations at Grass Val- 
ley, I deduce the following: 

The cost of milling is now $2 per ton; but this figure At Grass 
can certainly be reduced in labor account, by projected 
labor-saving improvements, to $1.64 steam, or $1.23 
water power, per ton; allowing in the latter case for the 
for tli9 use of the necessary water-heating apparatus. 

Cost of Concentration : Labor, 12 J cents per ton of $12 . 50 . 



'6 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

rock crushed, yielding about one per cent, sulphurets, 
(20 pounds, equal to one hundredth of a ton); or $12.50 
per ton of sulphurets, worth $200 at least. 
$ii.08. Cost of Chlorination of Sulphurets, $11.08 per ton; of 

which $4.87 is for roasting; chlorination proper being 
only $2.21 per ton. Loss five per cent, as compared 
with fire assay. 

(/).— AVEEAGE MINING, MILLING, AND YIELD, IN 1861. 

Twelve From statistics of thirty mines, situated in eight dif- 

years ago. 

ferent counties, reported thirteen years ago (in 1861), 
mining then cost an average of $6 per ton, milling 
$2.50, and the average yield of rock worked at the mills 
noted was $22 per ton. In eight mines, however, the 
the cost of mining was only $2 to $3 per ton; in fifteen 
mines the yield averaged only $10 per ton; and in sev- 
eral mills the cost of treatment was less than $1 per 
ton. 

(g).— TABULAE EXHIBIT OF MINING, 1873. 

Authorities. The material of the accompanying tabular exhibit is 
based in part on personal observations, and on various 
sources of reliable information that have fallen in my 
way, principally the authorities in " Statistics of Min- 
eral Kesources of the United States." 



^ND mining, 

Diagram of vein zones and vein sxstems. 
ants have been granted. L . Lassen's Butte. B.B.. .Black Butte, 
nating and slate in spots. 



TABULAR EXHIBIT OF VEINS AND MINING, 












..-M.> 


.:s nv .:.. I>o 


R->J>0 COU.IV. 












-"""■■ 




GEDLDSICAI. FEAXUBES. 


""Ml , ™J'.lA i " n | 


TICLO * PROm. 


yjstisr 


— |- 


— 


».__ 


„.„._ 


— - _ 


._ 


■ 


— I'SKRSW 


■ 


'."■■: i, : ;. 






;-s ;i -" : '»' 


JJrr '" 


^ssc 


^ r ;i:c:;.r 


■':/:"::;• :^ 












".'">».■.-'•■ -•'•'• ■.•.'■ .■'.:■',:,. - ■• 






h^H " 






;~ ti 


<■;:;-.■;.;■-» .— - 










■n.xm.L.uuan 




• 




ST ::::::.::.:.:: :::::.: 






■ 




jfcfc 






,«™,.„,™ 










^jT^.™;. ~ : .,-, t - vs ~ ^^Sj^st— 






























~"""™'"^":: ; | ..'... ".. "^r.".""""'" .""""."" 






■ 














•WSSSftS— • 




= [;::.:: 
















i 



87 



MINING. 

6.r-GRAVEL AND PLACER MINES. 
1.— OF GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

The placer mines of Georgetown Divide are situated Grand 
at Wild Goose, Hogg's Diggings, Centreville, Five Cent 
Hill, Jones' Hill, New York Hill, Volcanoville, and 
Schlein's Diggings ; beside which there are numerous 
shallow ravine placers, which were worked out in early 
times. ' 

The ravine mines were wholly, and the gravel mines 
in a large measure, indebted to the underlying seams 
for the gold they contained, or may still contain. 

In the pliocene period there were two streams in the Pliocene 

x A streams . 

principal gravel region of Georgetown Divide, where 
now there is only one. In other words, the North Fork 
and the South Fork of the Middle Fork had their junc- 
tion opposite Georgetown instead of opposite Mount 
Gregory. The ancient South Fork is represented by 
the Mount Gregory gravel range. 

Darling's Ranch and Jones' Hill gravel range repre- 
sents both Otter Creek and Canon Creeks. Here are, 
then, two gravel ranges, corresponding to two ancient 
rivers; the one a broad stream, the other a tributary, of 
no great length. 

The gravels of Schlein's Diggings show plainly that Local grav- 
they are of local origin. Whether it was a branch of 
the Placerville stream, or the ancient Otter-Canon 
Creek, is a matter of no consequence to the miner, ex- 
cept so far as the pitch of the bed-rock may furnish 
him with an outlet for his sluices without tunneling. 
Some of the gravels of Tipton Hill undoubtedly had 
their ancient outlet toward the north and west. 

The ancient canon in which were basined the gravels 



88 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

of Mamaluke Hill corresponds to the position of Ore- 
gon and Illinois canons, and probably trended, like the 
latter, into the ancient Otter-Canon Creek. 

In the same manner Eepublican Canon, on the south- 
west end of the Mount Gregory ridge, has its ancient 
repetition in the gravel deposits of Buckeye Hill. 

Kentucky Flat and related diggings, at the head of 
Otter and Canon creeks, both represent ancient tribu- 
taries to a small ancient river, these remnants of which 
only, are left. 

Jones' Hill was below the junction of the ancient 
Middle and South Forks of the American. 

(a).— THE MOUNT GEEGOEY EIDGE, 
piiccene Representing the pliocene South Fork of the Middle 

south fori;. ° x 

Fork, has a general elevation of 1,500 feet above the Mid- 
dle Fork, and a heavy gravel deposit of from 25 to 300 
feet in depth, and six or seven miles in length, running 
east and west. Average breadth of gravel nearly a mile. 
The mines tail into the Middle Fork of the American 
River on the north, and into Otter Creek on the south. 
Only the edges were worked in early times, yet there 
was once enough mining done on this ridge to create 
and to support very large and active populations at 
Mount Gregory, Yolcanoville, Buckeye, etc. 
Near Mount Mount Gregory Ridge proper extends through sec- 
tor, tions nine and ten, township thirteen north, eleven east, 
and is flanked on the north by the Middle Fork of the 
American, and on the south by Missouri Canon to its 
junction with Otter Creek. It is a very heavy gravel 
deposit, about two miles long and half a mile to three 
quarters of a mile wide, containing gravel from 10 to 
250 feet in depth. 



MINING. 89 

Formerly large sums of money were made here in the southern 
most primitive methods, by sluicing. On the south 
slope of the ridge the surface was washed away until 
the heavy deposit was reached, and after that drifting 
was resorted to. With local canon water on some of 
the lower branches, spring water is still used for one 
day in the week, to wash out the products of drifting; 
and there is sufficient inducement in this to keep a num- 
ber of miners lingering in the neighborhood. 

Upon the northern or Middle Fork side of the ridge Northern 

x " slope. 

little has been done in the way of mining. The hill 
has been pierced on both sides by numerous tunnels 
and demonstrated to contain rich deposits of gold. 

The various diggings on this ridge are Gravel Point, Diggings. 
Gardner's Point, Bitter's Point, Nameless Point, Car- 
ter's Point, Drummond's Diggings, Lloyd's Diggings, 
Webster's Diggings, Cooley's Claim, Bowman and 
Worthingham's Diggings, Garner's Claim, the Hercules 
Mine, etc. 

Volcanoville is situated on the same ridge in section Near voi- 

canoville. 

8, T. 13 N., 11 E. Still further west on section 7, and 
southerly in sections 17 and 18, also in sections 12 and 
13, T. 13 N., 10 E., are gravel deposits of considerable 
extent, known as Miller's Diggings, Trench Diggings, 
Buckeye Hill, etc. ; varying in depth from 15 to 25 feet. 

Buckeye Hill is an isolated piece of ground several Lower end. 
hundred acres in area, situated upon the extremity of a 
lateral ridge running southwestward from Mount 
Gregory ridge below Volcanoville. The gravel at this 
point has been drifted out in many places to 20 feet • 
thickness. The material was taken out in the summer 
time, and washed in the winter time. 



90 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

(&).— RIDGE PARALLEL TO MOUNT GREGORY RIDGE. 

gSj™ Across Otter Creek is the Darling's Banch, Bald Hill, 
and Jones' Hill ridge, representing the ancient Otter- 
Canon Creek, which created and supported the mining 
camps of Boulder, Gopher, Mormon, Bald, Harrison, Ce- 
ment, Bottle, Gravel, Mount Calvary and Jones' Hills; 
embracing an extent of country from five to seven miles 
in length, and an average width of perhaps half a mile. 
Besides the gravels on this ridge there are seam dig- 
gings at Bald Hill, near Cement Hill, and at Jones' 
Hill. 

Jackass Hill, or Chris's Banche, lies at the head of 
Otter Creek, near Kentucky Flat. Its channel seems 
to have a trend from east to west, connecting with the 
Boulder Hill deposit in section 27, T. 13 N., 11 E. 

Boulder Hiil is an extensive and deep deposit, fa- 
vorably situated for rapid hydraulic working, being on 
a ridge between two deep gorges. On the northward of 
this hill there is a tunnel several hundred feet deep. 

Darling's Banch, west of Boulder Hill, lies in sec- 
tions 28 and 29, T. 13 K, HE. Here occurs a large 
gravel ridge, near Darling's Banche, which has been 
explored by numerous shafts and tunnels, proving the 
existence of gold in paying quantities. It can be opened 
favorably either from Canon Creek or from Otter Creek. 

Bald Hill, in section 30, T. 13 N., 11 E., has a comb 
of talcose slate and other metamorphosed rock, which 
deflected the course of the ancient channel, standing 
across it at right angles. Opposite to it modern de- 
* nudation has carried away all signs and remnants of the 
ancient channel. 

Harrison Hill is a continuous gravel ridge, contain- 



MINING. 91 

ing a deep deposit, and extending east and west entirely 
through section 25, T. 13 N., 10 E. 

Cement Hill, situated farther west on the same ridge, 
opposite Georgia Slide, lies in section 26, T. 13 N., 10 
E., and is three quarters of a mile long by less than 
half a mile wide. Many years ago it was pierced by 
tunnels and the bottom stratum of gravel was extracted, 
yielding immense sums of money. 

A description of this was given by Prof. Blake, in 
his Geological Keconnaissance of California. He s ays 

"The Swiftsure tunnel is 120 feet in slate, and total 400 feet in 
length. The auriferous earth is found under a thick deposit of fine 
clay, 30 feet thick, in which whole trees are imbedded. * * * The 
clay differs from that at Mameluke Hill; it is nearly pure clay, with a 
reddish brown or drab color, and was evidently deposited in quiet 
water." 

Nevada Flat is a lateral ridge, jutting from the south- 
western side of Cement Hill, and occupying a corner 
of section 34, T. 30 N., 10 E. 

Bottle Hill Diggings occupy an area of about half 
a mile square, and have been celebrated for their yield. 
The North Star, St. Louis, Cuyahogo, Gravoy, and 
Hopewell tunnels, each extensive works, have pierced 
the Bottle Hill Channel from both sides; and the greater 
portion of the bottom stratum has been extracted by 
drifting. The channel is very deep, and, according to 
the popular belief, will pay throughout for hydraulic- 
ing. 

Mount Calvaky Diggings occupy the center portions 
of sections 27, 28, 33 and 34, T. 13 N., 10 E. The 
ground is principally owned by C. H. Calmes. 

Gravel Hill, west of Mount Calvary, occupies a 
considerable portion of section 28, T. 13 N., 10 E. 



92 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

The gravel covers an area of half a mile square, and is 
also deep. 

Jones' Hill, in sections 20 and 29, T. 13 N. 10 E., is 
divided by a gulch called Jones' Canon. That portion 
of the deposit on the north side consists of a heavy 
bed of gravel, while that upon the south side consists 
of seam diggings. The gravel is deep, and has been 
drifted out to a great extent. Area, one half to three 
quarters of a mile. 

Mitchell's Flat, west of Jones' Hill, is of small ex- 
tent, and constitutes the terminus of the ridge. 

(c.)— GRAVELS ROUND THE HEADWATERS OF OTTER AND 
CANON CREEKS. 

Kentucky A series of " drift" deposits, which blend with the 

Flat to Tip. r ' 

ton Hiii. Mount Gregory Channel near its upper or eastern ex- 
tremity, and having a total length of four miles, can 
be followed to Tipton Hill, though separated by the 
branches of Otter Creek. These include all the dig- 
gings situated between Kentucky Flat and Tipton Hill. 
Geologically this series does not differ from the gravels 
already referred to as forming the head of ancient Otter 
Canon Creek. 

North-west-; Barometrical observations, made by "W. A. Goodyear 

erly outlet. J J 

in 1871, proved, that the stream which flowed in Tipton 
Hill Channel emptied toward the north and west; con- 
sequently that it was tributary to ancient Otter-Canon 
Creek. 

The McCall Claim, near Grey Eagle Bar, has been 
profitably worked with a small sluice head. 
Branches of Gopher Hill is situated in section 33, T. 13 N., 11 

Canon 

creek. E., on a divide between two branches of Canon Creek, 

having a favorable hydraulic opening on the north into 



MINING. 93 

a precipitous canon. The gravel deposit extends north 
and south a distance of about a mile. The eastern end 
is supposed to connect in some way with Kentucky 
Flat. A tunnel on the north and several shafts in the 
hill have demonstrated the value of the ground. On * 
the southern end Currant & Cushman have made a small 
opening, with satisfactory results. 

Tipton Hill shows, at ScJileins Diggings, situated in Favorable 

7 a J J results dn 

section 3, T. 12 N., 11 E., the most extensive workings Jj^gj- 
in the whole section of country near the base of Tun- 
nel Hill. It is the southern end of a body of gravel, 
of which the Jones claim forms the northern terminus. 
With a pressure of sixty-five feet, a small quantity of . 
water, and an eight-inch sluice grade, boxes sixteen 
inches wide, and without the aid of quicksilver, the 
average yield per day in these diggings has been six 
dollars to the man employed. 

The water is brought in small ditches from near the 
head of Rock Creek. 

The northern boundary of the section, in which Deepun- 

worked 

Schlein's is situated, constitutes the northern boundary. & omid ' 
This ground was until lately owned by the Schlein broth- 
ers; it now belongs to the California Water Company. 
Thence north on the channel there is a claim nearly a 
mile in length, upon which there is a shaft in gravel 
120 feet deep, which has not reached down to bed rock. 
Upon its eastern side there is a tunnel 1100 feet long 
opening the ground, with an outlet into one of the 
branches of Eock Creek. 

Fokt Hill is situated farther west. The location is Drifted 
not accurately determined. On it there are many gravel 
claims, where drifting has been carried on to some 



94 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Prospected 
ground. 



Mingling 
with Mount 
Gregory- 
gravels. 



Parallel to 
Mt. Greg- 
ory, with 
westerly 
outlet. 



extent. The deposit is about one eighth of a mile 
wide and two miles in length, trending northerly and 
southerly. 

Bell's Diggings, next west of Kelly's, in section 15, 
and a portion of 22, in T. 13 N., 11 E., are situated 
at the extreme head of Missouri Canon. They have 
been prospected by a tunnel and many shafts, and 
found to contain gold in paying quantities. This de- 
posit is supposed to have some connection with the 
Kelly deposit, and also with the Kentucky Flat gravel 
at its southern extremity. 

Kentucky Flat is an extensive drift channel, having 
an average width of about three quarters of a mile. Its 
gravels are blended with neighboring deposits for a dis- 
tance of five miles in a northerly and southerly direc- 
tion, upon sections 34, 27, 22, and 15, T. 13 W., 11 E., 
mingling with the Mount Gregory gravels in section 10. 

Among the claims to be noted here, that of A, J. 
Wilton & Co. has been prospected to a considerable 
extent, and is known to contain gold in paying quanti- 
ties. The extreme southern end of the hill, at this 
mine, has been washed off. The gravel deposit is 10 
feet deep; but farther north bed-rock declines, and the 
gravel thickens to probably 100 feet. A tunnel pierces 
the gravel for 1,000 feet. At this mine the deposit is 
only a quarter of a mile wide. Both north and south 
of it the area of country covered with gravel widens out. 

Knight & Jones have worked on the south bank of 
Missouri Canon, at a point a mile north of Wilton's. 
They have thoroughly prospected the ground, and es- 
tablished its value. Where the gravel deposit is inter- 
sected by Missouri Canon, it seems to trend toward the 



MINING. 



95 



west, along the southern base of Mount Gregory Kidge, 
and to form a distinct deposit parallel to that of Mount 
Gregory. By actual survey, the vein-rock of Jones & 
Company's claim has been found to be 100 feet lower 
than at Wilton's, Kentucky Flat. 

From the Knight & Jones claim, toward the west, 
through sections 20 and 21, T. 30 K, 11 E., as far as 
the junction of Missouri Canon and Otter Creek, there 
are many small canons tributary to Otter Creek which 
have paid richly, yet without disclosing heavy gravel 
deposits. 

Kelly's Diggings are situated in sections 14 and S£n g 
23, T. 30 N., 11 E. The gravel shows a depth from 
the surface to bed-rock of not more than six feet. It 
appears to be the extreme eastern end of the aurifer- 
ous zone below Tunnel Hill. The deposit extends 
southerly to the north branch of Otter Creek, and to- 
ward the north and west blends into the Mount Gregory 
Ridge. The area washed is over 45 acres. The gold 
was pretty generally diffused through the gravel from 
top to bottom, and the mine, according to Kelly's 
statement, paid from $15 to $20 a day to the hand. 
Shafts were sunk close by, disclosing the existence of a Bee ^ 
channel from 30 to 80 feet in depth, and one quarter of 
a mile in width. This deposit continues for about two 
miles from south to north. 

(d.)— OTHEE GKAVELS ON GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Mamaluke Hill and Buffalo Hill are worthy of es- 
pecial notice. Mamaluke Hill was carefully examined 
in 1854 by Prof. Blake, having been drifted out to a 
large extent prior to that time. There is in the hill a 
gravel and sedimentary deposit 200 feet thick. Its 




96 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

character proves it to be of local origin. The Mamaluke 
Company drove in a tunnel 800 feet long. 

S 150 yards... N 

C 

Fig. 28.-SECTION OF MAMALUKE HILL, NEAR GEORGETOWN. 

A — Gray argillaceous beds with volcanic matter (cement) 40 feet. 

B — Auriferous gravel, 8 feet. 

C — Gray argillaceous beds, with volcanic matter, 60 feet. 

D — Auriferous gravel and clay, on bed rock. 

F— Tunnel. 

E— Shaft. 

Pilot Hill is the site of some gravel mining in an 
ancient channel of local origin. Before 1860, these mines 
supported a large and prosperous population. The 
gravel is from twenty to thirty feet thick, and contains 
many angular quartz bowlders and nuggets of gold. 
Since my visit, the principal ground has been purchased 
by the California Water Company. 

(2.)— GEAYELS OF PLACEEYILLE DIVIDE. , 

Heavy masses of pipe clay on the north rim of the 
pliocene south fork at Placerville near the head of the 
west branch of Cedar Eavine, show plainly enough 
that the principal ancient channel of the divide was 
further to the south. On crossing the ridge on the 
line of the stage road to Shingle Springs, the looming 
banks of Coon Hill hydraulic diggings testify to the 
central location of the ancient valley, as well as of the 
chief concentration of gold-bearing material in this 
vicinity — as clearly as the fact stated to me by Mr. 
Bishop, Superintendent of the mining company at work 



MINING. 97 

at Coon Hill — on the authority of the company's books 
and other reliable accounts — that twenty-five acres of 
gravel removed from here by hydraulicing, have yielded 
a total of $25,000,000. 

Touching the direction of this channel, Mr. Good- g™J 
year wrote, in the Placerville Democrat, in November, 
1871 : " It is extremely probable that a deep continuous 
channel, known here as the blue lead, extends from 
White Kock in a generally southerly direction beneath 
Dirty Flat and under the two intervening ridges to the 
extreme south end of Smith's Flat. But whether this 
channel from there on continues its general southerly 
course, coming out on the Weaver Creek side, at or in 
the vicinity of the old 'Try Again' tunnel, or whether 
it makes a sharp bend to the southward in Prospect 
Flat, is a question impossible to answer with certainty 
until developments have been pushed further under- 
ground." 

Without attempting in connection with my George- 
town work, to trace the course in detail of this ancient 
river of Placerville Divide, I may say that I could look 
over the entire country from Grey Eagle Mountain and 
Kobb's and Tell's Mountains, and was on the ancient 
channel of Placerville at two points, Sportsman's Hall 
and Placerville, and I have no hesitation in stating it as 
a fact that the topography of the pliocene period is pre- 
served in the volcanic outflows, showing that the ancient 
south fork cannot have varied much in its general course 
from that of the south fork of the present day. 

3.— PLACER AND GEAVEL MINES ON FOEEEST HILL DIVIDE. 

Forrest Hill Divide, like so many other mining regions Depopuia- 
of the Sierra Nevada, became almost depopulated after 
7 



98 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

the first historical era of gold mining in California. It 
is, nevertheless, one of the most productive mining dis- 
tricts of the State. Within half a mile of the town of 
Forrest Hill it has been estimated that from $5,000,000 
to $10,000,000 have been taken out. The mines began 

?S^° ttom ^° decline i n 1858, at the time of the Frazer Kiver ex- 
citement. Prior to that drifting was the customary 
method of working, and the lower strata of concentra- 
ted gravel yielded enormously. 

crystals of In places on the Forrest Hill channel gold has been 

gold in pla- * _ # ° 

cers - found in crystals along with quartz crystals, the angles 

of which only were broken off. This probably cannot 
have been situated on any central wash of the ancient 
channel. 

The gravels of Forrest Hill Divide constituted the 
ancient middle and north forks of the Middle Fork of 
the American. 

Yield, to be Near Todd's Valley. — The Dardanelles Mine, with a 

halved. 

frontage of 1,000 feet, reported $2,000,000; the Jenny 
Lind, with a frontage of 450 feet, over $1,000,000; the 
New Jersey, with a frontage of 600 feet, and from an 
area of 500x400 feet, $850,000; The D eider Jiimer, $650,- 
000; the Independent, $450,000; the Fast, Bough and 
Ready, Gore, and sundry others, each about $250,000; 
and many claims from $50,000 to $200,000 each. The 
Gore claim had a frontage of 100 feet and a depth of 200 
feet in the hill. About $40,000 from the Gore claim 
was derived from a basin 380 feet square. The Inde- 
pendence yielded $10,000 from a space 20x20 feet. 
These reported yields might, perhaps, safely be halved. 
At Todd's Valley, Pond & Co. now pretty nearly 

Consolida- . 

dri?tiS d monopolize all the mining ground. The town itself is 
comparatively depopulated. The Blue Gravel Eange 



99 



MINING. 

Company occupies the ground of the old " Dardenelles," 
with Spring Garden ranche and the Powell Claim, em- 
bracing nearly two miles on the old channel. On the 
Powell claim a good many years ago a tunnel was run 
in 750 feet long, but it being found too high to drift 
the ground to the bed-rock, an incline was sunk from 
the end 120 feet, and a chamber was excavated, where 
hoisting and pumping engines and a chimney shaft were 
put in. 

The Mountain Company have a tunnel in 2,600 feet, Drifting 
and a shaft down from the end 60 feet. They were re- 
puted to be netting, several years ago, $1,000 per month. 

All the claims on the Forrest Hill ridge extend 
'through a big channel to the Devil's Canon on the north. 
The tunnels were generally run in too high. 

Yankee Jim's, another depopulated, historical town, 
has yielded its millions, and employed many thousands 
of miners for ten or twelve years. Bradley & Co. are 
of the few old companies which have continued work- 
ing. 

Bath had 100 inhabitants left in 1870. The pay is in cement. 
hard cement, which has to be thoroughly slacked before 
washing. The Paragon Mill Company own here the 
principal lead, and have crushed the cement with profit. 
They worked 20 men day and night in 1870, and the 
mine was said to pay $200 a day. 

At Michigan Bluffs there is in sight an unusually origin of 

gravel. 

large quantity of concentrated pure quartz gravel, which 
in the opinion of Prof. W. B. Blake is of local origin; 
though the fact that so little country rock is intermixed 
with a large quantity of thoroughly washed quartz 
boulders (if rounded?) would seem to imply that the 



100 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

material had traveled a considerable distance. In the 
deposits of lighter material there is observable a dia- 
gonal stratification caused by varying currents; the evi- 
dence being in favor of a local northeasterly and south- 
westerly course of the channel, like that of the North 
Fork of the middle fork and its branches. The large 
boulders in other portions of the diggings testify to the 
presence, at the time of formation, of a very large quan- 
tity of water, and a violent transporting power. 
Yield. Q ne of t k e c i a i ms yielded $48,000 in &\e months, to 

nine men employed night and day; at an expense of 
$13,000; leaving a profit of $35,000. The usual yield 
was formerly from six to eight dollars a day of ten hours 
work to the man; in some claims from $20 to $30. A 
four-pound nugget was taken out of these mines in early 
times, showing that a portion of the gold, at least, was 
probably of local origin. 

7.— COPPEK MINES. 

Copper mining has been carried on in two or three 
localities on Georgetown Divide. 

1 hS e beu° r " ^■ HE B UNKEE Hill Mine is situated three quarters of a 
mile south of the Georgetown road, near Pollard's, and 
is in a highly metamorphosed belt, running parallel to 
the trend of the slates in that region. A mill was 
erected upon the mine, but the works were abandoned, 
and the mill has gone to decay. The ore consists of 
sulphurets and carbonates . 

with garnet ^he Fairmount Mine is situated on the road from 

rocK. 

Pilot Hill to Coloma, several miles from the South 
Fork of the American. A tunnel of considerable length 
has been run northerly into the hill. The works have 
been abandoned for many years. The ore consists 



MURING. 101 

chiefly of sulpliurets. Garnets occur in huge blocks 
two feet thick. 

Copper mining, in the same general range of the jjjjjj^gjg 
slates, in the foot hills, has been carried on in numer- 
ous localities outside of El Dorado County. It is in 
the same zone of copper-ore deposits, and in about the 
same geological position west of the gold- vein series 
which has been worked in Amador County at the Co- 
sumnes mine, near Michigan Bar; at the Newton mine, 
three miles from lone City; and at the Copperopolis, in 
Calaveras County; and also near Round Tent, in Yuba 
County. 

The Cosumnes Mine is in profitable operation at the smeitimg. 
present time. It keeps 40 men employed. The ore is 
reduced at the mine by smelting; the yield, by this pro- 
cess, being about 40 per cent. 

The Newton Mine employs 25 men. The ore is LeacMng.. 
worked by the leaching process, which saves 90 per 
cent. 

8.— IRON. 

Iron ore of good quality, and in large quantity, has stock work. 
been found and explored to some extent, in Placer 
County, near Auburn. The locality is on the land of 
Lysander Utt, one mile north of Wells' Ranch, on the 
Grass Valley road, six miles from Auburn. There is on 
the hillside a mass 30 feet thick, of hemitite, perhaps 
intermixed with limonite. Iron ore here occurs in 
larger quantity than has been noted anywhere else in 
the slates, unless it be the deposits of Sierra County. 

llmenite, or titanic iron, has been found in large crys- Minerals. 
tals in the gold sluices at Georgetown; and magnetite in 
the wall rock of the Trench lode, Yolcanoville; also in 



102 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

fine octahedral crystals in slates near the Boston cop- 
per mine, in this county. 

9.— CINNABAK 

Ledges, Has been found in El Dorado County, in a ledge on 

the main ditch near Work's Banch; in quantities be- 
lieved by the owners to be workable with great profit, 
near Latrobe; also in a quartz vein in Mariposa County; 
and in the placer mining sluices at Grass Yalley. 

10.— LIMESTONE QUAKKIES. 

Kilns Limestone is quarried and burned into lime at sev- 

eral points on the bluffs overlooking the Middle and 
North Eorks, near Auburn. The kilns at Farnsworth's, 
on the Georgetown road, are large and well constructed, 
and have been constantly in use, manufacturing great 
quantities of lime, which are hauled to Auburn depot. 

caves, car- j n the Alabaster Cave, near Pilot Hill, hexagonal 

bonates and 3 ° 

mephates. crvs tals of the carbonate of lime (calcspar) occur. In 
the same formation arragonite, (the rhombic carbonate 
of lime,) has been found in Tuolumne County. Do- 
lomite, the magnesian carbonate of lime, is found in nar- 
row snow-white veins, containing sulphurets, in the ad- 
joining county of Amador; and gypsum, (the sulphate 
of lime,) occurs there in some of the mines. Fine 
specimens of both could doubtless be found in the 
quarries or caves of El Dorado. 

11.— OTHEB MINEKALS. 

Nickel. Red nickel pyrites, or arsenical nickel, with horn- 

blendic gangue, from a vein in the high Sierra upon 
this Divide, were found by Charles Evans, in 1868. 
They were encased in nickeliferous iron pyrites and 
sulphurets of nickel. 



TVT T"^ 



■* " ■ "j ftcBides lob Iujub gold $29; silver 
of copper ore. 



At surface, $10 00, 
(according to 
Heusch.) 

Before 1868, $20 00 
from 225 tons. 




TABULAR EXHIBIT OF VEINS AND MINING, 

ACCOMPANYING REPORT ON GEORGETOWN DIVIDE 











= .-I.ELATIO S 


s oir vums AN 


U BKmTS o 


W I.IIINING. OOKTDmjl 






"i 


KDS 










ITEMS. 


SIOLOS1CAL FE«TTOES. 


™'m.'~ 


- l "' i ; 


y.tuo a moFiT. 


-HBSS- 


- 


» 


- 


— 1 » — 


" 


,..„.,, 


_ 


«RSB> 


3£ 


',";",',:' 


£S5 


.... 










iE . ,.„,;„.:. ,„.„ 


mwmsv- 


- 


- 











-■ 


— 








» : " K:M "''' ; " f 


I-:.:..:::.::.:...::.::: fS?"?.: :::':..:.'.::::'.:::: ':::..::: » 






H SffiS ::j: 




















^■m 


j ••■•■ T' 


- i 




SEfc~v.::: 


-|-f-— 1---' : |%is^^^^B 




1 M " 
























:' 




a? 




szr.— 

















''wmm 


SSKr.'.™!'!.'.", 


™: 










fc^-KftS' 








.■-...■ 


- 


















1'." " 


u 


,.. 




■ax— 


8585 




jir!r~""""™'' 




'" 






>«: 




.... 


I™... 


-r 


•B" 
















,..,..„ 




■ 


"■ 










====== 














,;r'"',",!:'" 




«=' 
























„.„.,„.„ 


■Sja;---— «-« » 












.. 






„... 


„... 


wm 




Kst^EHFSffi; 


*&&£&& 








■a- 




~— 


VWWiS 




™ 


" H 
























.;:.; ■:;;;,;;::.;;■ :ii- i i?BfS."i?as 




...... 




:::: 


















gs 
















L 


S&S!=^-^"-*" 










<• i;k,,., ... 


..::•: .: ':' .... .. ■: ' 










!T" 






■ 


^Z" :z: .. 


;;:: 




















~.»..„. 




L~ i ... 


:::::: ■,::,: 







MINING. 103 

The minerals occurring in the granite of this region In Granite - 
are graphite (developed in workable quantities twenty 
miles east of the Big Trees), sphene, in hair-brown crys- 
tals, garnets, hornblende, etc. 

In the volcanic rocks at Mud Springs is found 'pyro- 
xene. 

For further minerals, recognized and placed, see un- 
der Gravels and Yolcanic Matter, Subdivision IY; and 
column of Minerals in Veins, etc., in the Tabular Ex- 
hibit of Mines, g 5. 



104 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



IV. -GEOLOGY. 



1. — Geneealizations Locally Applicable to Mining. 

2. — Vein Systems op the Divide and their Oeigin. 

3. — The Country Kock, or Matrix. 

4. — Mineral Contents op the Veins. 

5. — Surface Geology and Placer Mining. 



Compari- 



Geological 
section of 
Sierra Nev. 



Position of 
mines. 



1.— GENEEALIZATIONS LOCALLY APPLICA- 
BLE TO MINING. 

Having acquainted you with all these details, concern- 
ing mining in the domain under consideration, you 
will know best what to think of either by comparing 
them with similar developments of an established char- 
acter, in California or elsewhere. In order to make such 
comparisons possible, however, I must be allowed a 
broader scope in this chapter; and, for brevity and 
clearness' sake, the privilege of expressing myself in 
part in the words coined by miners and geologists to 
suit the subject. 

My notes, under this general head, along with about 
500 specimens that we collected, embrace considerable 
material towards a geological section of the Sierra 
Nevada, at about the middle of their geographical ex- 
tent 

After locating the mines of the Divide as on the ac- 
companying map, upon a large scale, the first business 
was to locate and map in a similar manner, but on a 
smaller scale, such other mines as those already consid- 
ered are directly related to; and the position of both 
in the parent slate formation. 



GEOLOGY. 105 



oc- 
currences. 



Slate form- 
ation. 



As these veins are acknowledged results of dynamical Jjjjjjjj 
causes, it was necessary to go further and consider spe- 
cifically their dynamical history, with that of the slates, 
involving their relations as observed, to the surround- 
ing older and newer formations. 

The structure of the Range, and the geographical out- 
lines of the gold-bearing slates on its western flank, etc., 
are, therefore, concisely stated. 

What is said under historical geology appears broad Sent an 
and general enough, in part, yet it is as specific and 
brief as it could be to lay the foundation of certain con- 
clusions which, it will be admitted, are as practical as 
they are important to the pursuit of mining in this 
region. 

The miner deals principally in hard knocks, or phys- ^S and 
ics (scientifically speaking), but not entirely in physical 
problems. The moment he begins to read his book in 
its most practical part, the moment he begins to question 
concerning the contents of veins: " "Where is the gold?" 
" Whither do its flakes, sheets, and chimneys extend?' 
" Where did it come from ? " and " What minerals is it 
associated with ? " — he leaves physics, and goes into 
the chemistry of nature. 

As it would be impossible to comprehend the phe- 
nomena of the seam diggings without some idea of vein 
geology in its chemical phase, I have applied the best 
lights extant, derived from concurrent observations of 
others in this field of practical science, to the subject 
as we find it, in section 4, below. 



106 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



2.— VEIN SYSTEMS, THEIE OEIGIN AND 
KELATIONS. 



3. 



4. 



Structure of the Sierra Nevada as Kelated to Mineral Belts — Lead- 
ing Features — Granite Axis — Culmination — Axes of Uplift. 

Vein Systems based upon Formation and Strike — Geographical 
Foundations — Flexure and Breakage — Forking of Vein System 
corresponding to Mountain Systems — Method of Deduction — 
Kelation of Veins to Strike of Slates — Age of Fissures — Exam- 
ples and Proportions of Fissures in Different Systems — Kelations 
to Wealth in Gold. 

Veins Classed according to Their Contents — Wealth in Gold — Gold, 
Silver, and Copper. 

Points applying to Georgetown Divide. 



Summits. 



The third 
summit. 



A snowy 
spur. 



1. STRUCTURE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA AS RELATED TO 
MINERAL BELTS— LEADING FEATURES. 

There are three summits instead of two in the region 
of the head waters of the Middle and South Forks of 
the American. 

The great snowy belt so prominently visible from the 
capital, and from the valley opposite Georgetown Di- 
vide, as the dominant snow-field of the Sierra Nevada 
in this latitude, and of which ' ' Tell's Mountain " is the 
most prominent culmination, lies in the third, or west- 
ern summit. It is in this, and in the adjacent central 
summit, that the abundant water supplies are stored un- 
til late summer, in the form of perpetual snow, which 
are utilized by the California Water Company. 

The third or western summit starts out like the east- 
ern summit, of which " Job's Peak" is the culminating 
point, in the form of a spur; yet opposite a portion of 
Lake Tahoe it is the highest of the three ranges. It is 
visible from the north end of Lake Tahoe on its eastern 
slope as the highest summit range, carrying the largest 
amount of snow anywhere visible from the Lake. It is 
clothed in white the summer through, and therein con- 



GEOLOGY. 



107 



stitutes one of the principal charms of this, the noblest 
of mountain lakes on the continent. 

The two eastern summits are granitic. The western, ma t er iai. c 
or Tell's Mountain range, sometimes called the Conness 
range, contains beds of gneiss — formed of the compo- 
nent materials of granite in a rudely stratified form. 

The Sierra Nevada range continues to the north, as Trend - 
already remarked, in two different directions — north- 
ward in the "Warner range and the Cascade or the Blue(?) 
Mountains of Oregon; northwestwardly in the direction 
of the Lassen and Shasta Buttes; which are close on the 
eastern flank of the great area of crystalline rocks of 
the Trinity and Scott mountains. 

The continuation of the gold-bearing slate formation Northern 

termina- 
ls seen to extend to the coast not far from the Oregon tion - 

boundary, in one grand, swelling, gentler dome than 
that of the Sierra Nevada, terminating toward the north 
at Bald Mountain, 2800 feet high, in the rear of Port 
Orford. 
Granitic Cores. — Both of these last named ranges, as "Plutonic 

° 7 eruptive 

well as the Sierra Nevada united at Lake Tahoe, con- in ori§til1, 
tain cores of granite, viz : the "Warner range, just west 
of Alkali Lake, in Surprise Yalley (visited by me in 
1863), and the Middle Age or Secondary coast range 
of the Trinity, in the divide between Cottonwood Creek, 
Shasta, and Trinity Biver (visited in 1871), and further 
northward into Oregon, in spots; so reported to me at 
Port Orford, in 1873, by an intelligent prospector and 
gravel miner, who had explored the entire region of 
the auriferous coast gravels of the coast range of Oregon. 
(Mr. Potts.) 

Culmination or the Bange. — It is to the southward 
of Georgetown Divide, and far south of the middle of 



108 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Fisher- their geographical extent, that the Sierra Nevada cul- 

man'e Peak. ° ° r ' 

minate. At a point near Owens' Lake, opposite Tulare 
Lake, the northerly trending mountains of the plateau 
of Nevada culminate in the White Mountains, and the 
northwesterly trending Sierra Nevada range culminate 
in Fisherman's Peak.* 

Axes of Uplift. — It will be observed that the axes, 

or efforts, of uplift developed the forms represented in 

* 

the diagram (Fig. 29). 
combined The northerly trends of the plateau of Nevada then 

results of J L 

fOTcSf arate na( ^ tne e ^ ec ^ to interrupt the course and deflect the 
uplift of the Sierra Nevada in a remarkable manner. 
At the point of interruption and deflection (G), the ef- 
fort disclosed in the uplift of the Sierra Nevada ap- 
pears to have spent its forces in attaining the highest 
culmination of the range. 




Fig. 29.— AXES OF UPLIFT. 

* So named by the party that first ascended it, in honor of a fisher- 
man, who fished for fame by naming the biggest mountain in America 
after himself, and locating it at Mount Whitney, six miles from Fish- 
erman's Peak. Vide account of King's Ascent of Mount Whitney, 
supposing it to be Fisherman's Peak, by J. D. Hague, in the Overland 
Monthly of October, 1873; and of an ascent of the same mountain by 
W. A. Goodyear, the accidental discoverer of this error, before the Cal- 
ifornia Academy of Sciences in 1873, copied in the American Journal of 
Sciences, October, 1873. See, also, King's explanation, attributing the 
error in the " Central Map" to local attraction, in Mountaineering, 1873. 






GEOLOGY. 109 

A valley was formed on the California side of the Ancient'ru- 

•* diments of 

range, opening northward, like those of Eel and Sali- valle y s - 
nas rivers, as if it were intended to connect with the 
Klamath. (Note the striking identity of the axis of 
the Klamath and San Joaquin rivers, on the map.) 

But the Siskiyou mountains, near Weaverville, devel- 
oped a spur (A, B) to seaward in sympathy with the 
Monterey and San Francisco arm of granite bending 
around from the Tejon. Thus was laid the foundation 
for the future very peculiar topography of the great 
valley of California. Their date was Tertiary. 

The extensive volcanic plateau east of Shasta and Dates of ori- 
gin, Modoc 

Lassen Peaks, extending to Goose Lake — the Modoc P lateau - 
country — scarcely explored before the late Modoc war, 
represented by the letters A, E, E, owes its origin 
to the manner in which the two separately-occurring 
forces of uplift affected that inter-montane area. The 
older, or north-westerly, was that of the Sierra, the date 
cretaceous ; the newer, or northerly, that of the Cascades, 
the date tertiary in part, being also the date of origin of 
the Modoc plateau. 

The "Bernardino Sierra," continuing westerly from 
D to the Pacific coast, north of Los Angeles, are of 
granite. (See Blake's Reconnaissance, containing a geo- 
logical map of the Tejon region.) It is flanked by 
newer sedimentary deposits, forming the coast moun- 
tains from Los Angeles to San Francisco. In a similar 
manner the Trinity granite mountains have their con- 
tinuations to the southward in the newer sedimentary 
rocks forming the coast mountains extending from Trin- 
ity Eiver to San Francisco. 

The northerly trending mountains of Nevada were, 
according to the testimony of their fossils, uplifted in 
the earlier Mesozoic, or Secondary Time, he Sierra Ne- 



110 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Tada later in the Cretaceous, and the coast ranges still 
later in the Tertiary arid Post Tertiary. 



Relations to 
uplift. 



Region of 
the gold 
veins. 



Northerly 
and North- 
westerly- 
enrichment 
zones. 



2.-VEIN SYSTEMS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA— FORMATION 
AND STRIKE. 

Geographical Foundations. — The geography of the 
auriferous slates and of the associated granites, with 
the relative position of the axes of elevation and de- 
pression bounding them on the east and west, and the 
actual position of the veins, in this golden basin of the 
Mesozoic sea, which is now the western slope of the 
Sierra Nevada — instrumentally located, plotted, and 
presented to a vision undimmed by any fogs of hypoth- 
esis, as in the accompanying map (Fig. 34) — affords us 
the first definite idea of the geological relations of our 
famous gold mines. 

Flexure and Breakage. — A zone of extreme flexure 
and breakage of the auriferous slates, displayed in the 
mother lode and its continuations, is shown by the map 
to be as near as can be midway between the axis of 
greatest uplift of the main or central summit, and the 
axis of greatest depression, which is evinced in the 
drainage bed of Sacramento Valley — Sacramento Eiver 
itself. 

Forking of Vein System. — On plotting the veins in 
their true geographical position to the mother lode 
south, and to the Nevada county and Sierra county 
quartz lodes north, of the Amador mine, we see, beside 
the general connection and relationship of worked 
veins, a forking of the vein system ; which is displayed 
in the direction of the veins as well as in the geographi- 
cal position of the vein regions, where the veins have 
proved rich enough to be worked. 



(GEOLOGY. Ill 

The figures on the map designate the mines, which 
are similarly numbered in the printed reference list. 

Corresponding to Mountain Systems . — As the Sierra p^nic* 
Nevada range itself continues to the northward in two causes. 
different directions (northward in the Warner range 
and Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and northwestward 
in the Lassen and Shasta Butte culminations), the fork- 
ing of the vein-belt and predominating directions of the 
veins themselves, as here developed, are not remarka- 
ble, nor otherwise than might be expected. 

Method of Deduction. — The diagram in the upper Patented 

° x mines. 

right hand corner was constructed by laying some 
tracing paper over the map, and drawing on it outlines 
which included all of the veins that are plotted. By 
cutting this out and laying it over that, it will be found 
to cover nearly every vein I have located, including ev- 
ery vein mine that could be crowded into the space, for 
which a United States mineral survey and patent were, 
up to the date of plotting, recorded in the office of the 
United States Surveyor-General, at San Francisco. 

Eelation of Yeins to the Strike of the Slates. — Northwest. 

erly veins 

The strike of the slates is, in the main, represented befts 6 . eam 
by the general direction of the two formations printed 
black, or shaded. Both in the map, and in the small 
diagram in the right, the preponderance of veins keep- 
ing company with the " mother lode " in the same gen- 
eral direction, is made apparent. Several of the char- 
acteristic variations in direction are repeated in the 
little diagram, by way of suggestion as to the probable 
dynamical cause, or causes. The strike of the slates of 
course implies merely the bending and corrugation of 
the sediments at right angles to the lateral pressure that 



112 



GE0KGET0WN DIVIDE. 



caused the principal uplift, the axis of which is seen to 
be parallel. That fissures were caused in the last stages 
of this bending is positively established ; hence the 
particular process by which the metamorphic belts, 
seam belts, quartz ribbons, and the great quartz veins, 
like the mother lode in the strike of the slates, were 
formed as we see them, may be regarded partly as the 
Mechanical mechanical result of different degrees of continuousness 

conditions. 

of fracture; depending upon the thickness of the slate 
formation, or their position relative to the main frac- 
tures, or bottom fissures. 

Age of Fissukes. — The age or origin of these differ- 
ent systems of fissures cannot have been precisely the 
same. The dynamical cause of one series was not the 
same as that of another series. In general those par- 
allel to each other were formed at the same time. The 
age was that of the related axes of uplift; so that mod- 
ern fissures may be shown to have occurred in ancient 
rocks. 

The filling of the fissures, with a variety of minerals, 
such as we find in the veins, varies accordingly. Proba- 
bly the time will come when the observations of miners 
touching the different contents of cross veins, and of 
geologists touching the order of uplift — the longitu- 
dinal fractures, the twists and the transverse fractures 
of the slates, as they were experienced in different por- 
tions of the Mesozoic basin since it became dry land — 
may make out clearly the priority and exact relations of 
the several systems. 

The longitudinal fractures represented by the mother 
lode were probably the oldest — telling the story of the 
uplift of the Sierra. The twist and transverse fractures 
which evince a relationship either to the northerly or 



Priority of 
system. 



Mother lode 
and her 
family. 



GEOLOGY. 113 

northwesterly trends of the Sierra, will have to be 
studied probably in connection with the history of the 
volcanic peaks, the uplift of the Cascade Mountains, and 
the plateau mountains of Nevada. The mines belong- 
ing to these different systems can be tabulated from the 
accompanying printed list by the miner himself, and 
studied to suit his locality. 

Examples, and Proportion of Fissures of Differ- JJjJJSS? 
ent Strike. — The totals below show about the propor- 
tion of veins occurring in each system described, ex- 
cept, perhaps, in regard to system No. 5. That might 
be subdivided, as it represents double the sweep of 
horizon of either of the other systems; including the 
veins intermediate between the others in course, both 
the (a) northeasterly twist and (b) northwesterly twist 
fractures. 

1. — Northwesterly Fractures, or veins ivitliin 15' deq. of Mother lode 

<J > v ' Bystem. 

the general trend of the Sierra {north 15 deg. west to north 
45 deg. west, average north 30 west), embracing a sweep of 
30 deg. —2, Potts; 5, Kelsey; 7, Arbena; 8, Grey Eagle; 
15, Northern Light; 21, Salathiel ; 35, Galena ; 36, 
Sebastopol; 48, Penon Blanco; 49, Greenwood; 52, 
Oneida; 62, Keystone; 65, Spring Hill and Geneva; 87, 
Newtown; 88, S. Bright; 89, St. Lawrence; 90, Cedar- 
berg; 114, Kocky Bend; 126, Gover; 130, Tecumseh; 
136, Wisconsin; 172, Union; 194, Eureka; 201, Copp; 
202, Secret Canon; 212, El Dorado; 214, Coyote Hill; 
215, Talsig; 217, Greenwood; 233, Consumnes ; 243, 
Last Chance; 260, Murietta; 289, Empire; 292, Sul- 
phuret; 294, Mohoney. Total, 35. 

2. — Northwesterly Transverse Fractures, or veins within 

15 deg. of a right angle to the trend of the Sierra {north 45 
8 



system. 



114 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

deg. east to north 75 deg. east, average north 60 deg. east).— 
14, Kelly; 22, Eising Sim; 50, Spring Hill ; 97, Noram- 
baqua; 193, Eclipse; 199, Keystone ; 209, Chauleur; 
315, Old Pioneer. Total, 8. 
Grass vaiiey 3. — Northerly Fractures, or veins within 15 deg. of a 
northerly trend {north 15 deg. west to north 15 deg. east), 
embracing a sweep of 30 deg.— 22, Norridgewoek; 30, 
Spring Yalley; 31, Yenus; 32, Stanton & Allison; 34, 
Auroral Star; 44, Eough and Ready; 65, Original Am- 
ador; 73, Dry Co.; 74, Stanislaus; 80, Hancock & Tib- 
betts; 112, Nisbet; 115, Lone Jack; 120, Sliger; 134, 
Everlasting; 173, Poorman; 182, Carson; 184, Wolver- 
ine; 195, Confidence; 198, Yellow Jacket; 203, N. Con- 
iidente; 211, Shores; 233, Cosumnes; 246, Plymouth 
Eock; 277, Fort Yuma; 305, E. R. Hill; 319, Uncle 
Sam. Total, 26. 

4. — Northerly Transverse Fractures, or veins within 15 
deg. of a right angle to the northerly trending axes of uplift 
(north 75 deg. east to south 75 east), embracing a sweep of 
30 deg. — 3 and 4, Oaks, Eeese & Jones; 39, Epperson; 
54, State Ledge; 81, Union; 132, Tyson; 191, Key- 
stone; 226, "Wet Gulch; 238, Ophir; 298, Hancock &. 
Watson. Total, 10. 

5. — Twist Fractures, or veins running from north 15 
deg. east to north 45 deg. east (30 deg.), and north 45 deg. 
west to north 75 deg, west (oO deg.)., making in all a hori- 
zon of 60 deg . , or as much as Nos. 1 and 3 together, the 
veins of which are neither parallel nor transverse to either 
of tlie principal axes of uplift. — 9, Schofield; 45, Eureka; 
84, Enterprise; 98, N. Y. Hill; 115, Moorehouse; 124, 
Banghart; 128, Calaveras; 131, Bobby Bums; 138, In- 
dependent; 165, Lucan; 175, Stickle; 189, St. John; 
&04, butcher Boy; 208, C. Baker; 210, Waters; 219, 



GEOLOGY. 



115 



Green, Walter; 233, Cosumnes; 249, Boree; 251, Croe- 
sus; 303, Mammoth; 320, Dr. Hill. Total, 22. 

(6).— THEIE CONTENTS AND PAEALELLISMS. 

HOW THE tJPKISING OF A CONTINENT MAY HAVE SOME- 
THING TO DO WITH MINING. 



Having shown the geographical position and relations, 
and the geological origin of these vein fissures in the 
auriferous slates, it will be in order now briefly to con- 
sider how far these, and other circumstances connected 
with their origin, may have had something to do with 
the quality or quantity of their contents. 

There are four well defined parallel mineral belts, run- 
ning in a northerly and southerly direction, represented belts 
in the veins of the Sierra Nevada; yielding respectively, 
copper, gold, base metals, and silver. 

Beginning at the sea coast, and including with those 
of the Sierra Nevada the entire series, the order is as 
follows : 



Parallel 

N. &S. 



CORDILLERAN MINERAL BELTS. 



1. Coast range 

2. Sac and San Joaquin 

Valley 

3. Sierra Nevada- 
fa) Foothills 

(b) Mid slope 

(c) Eastern slope 

(d) Eastern slope 



Basin of Mexico, Ari- 
zona, Eastern Ne- 
vada, Idaho 

New Mexico, Utah, 
Western Montana 

New Mexico, Colora- 
do, "Wyoming, 
Montana • 



MINERALS- 



Quicksilver, Tin, Chromic iron 

Brown coal 

Copper 

Gold mineralized by sulphur and iron, 
the system extending through to 
western Mexico 

Copper and lead 

Silver, with very little base metal, 
frequently wholly or partly inclosed 
in volcanic rock, cutting through 
volcanic dykes- 

Silver, associated with base metals . . 
Rocky Mountains Argentiferous galena. 

ditto, Geld, with base metals 



PROBABLE PERIOD 
OP DEPOSIT- 



Tertiary. 

Tertiary and post- 
tertiary. 
Oldest cretaceou s 



Cretaceous- 
Cretaceous in part- 



Tertiary. 



Devonian rocks. 

Mesozoic and pal- 
eazoic rocks. 

Same. 



116 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Outline of 
formations 
interesting 
to the 
miner. 



The great 
world axis 
of mount- 
ains and 
minerals. 



The parallelism of these belts is clearly referable to 
the structural features of the country. It is related not 
merely to mountain ranges, but to the succeeding form- 
ations of different ages, which in those ranges were up- 
lifted. From the Silurian to the Post-Tertiary, the 
gradual land-making to the westward, and the insular 
spots so far as recognized, all reproduce this remarkable 
unity of parallelism in which our gold and silver veins 
are concerned. In crossing the country from west to 
east we traverse the whole series of formations; when, 
by following roads parallel to the mountain ranges, we 
may travel continuously upon the outcrops of the same 
age for a thousand miles. 

The grand fact that the axis of the Cordillera of 
North and South America is continued into Asia, where 
it had undoubtedly a great deal to do — both in its direct 
continuation and in parallel uplifts — in shaping that 
continent; bearing upon its flanks everywhere forma- 
tions producing gold or silver; and, that this is the 
identical axis which, passing around the world, divides 
it into one hemisphere nearly all land, and another 
nearly all water, leads the miner of the Sierra Nevada 
at once to the consideration of cosmical problems. 
And, if he could read unerringly, from the contents of 
the veins, the simple original cause of this line of frac- 
ture, he might contribute as effectively towards a solu- 
tion of one of the great problems of space, as did the 
miners of Erz mountains who founded the science of 
geology, towards a solution of the problem of Time. 



PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 



cretaceous Two periods of vein deposit— in general accompanied 
andtertiary. ^ ^ ejection of igneous rocks, affording the condi- 



GEOLOGY. 117 

tions of solfataric action favorable to metalliferous de- 
posit — are promulgated by Clarence King, to-wit: the 
"late Jurassic" and tertiary. The cretaceous age of 
the principal gold veins of the Sierra Nevada is defi- 
nitely limited and fixed; the rocks being Jurassic (next 
preceding in age), and the tertiary (the next following 
formation), furnishing us with concentrated auriferous 
gravels that originated from the denudation of the veins 
in question. 

The age of the fissures in question is always the same identical 

° # ^ J with uplift. 

as the axis of uplift or fracture. See structure of the 
Sierra, under vein systems; and " Stratigraphy " further 
on. 

The " Tabular Exhibit of Veins and Mining" in the Two ages in 

° one system, 

last chapter, shows that one series, or half of the mother 
lode system of veins, is older than the other. [See 
Pine Tree.] And under "Mineral Contents of Veins " 
further on, will be found reasons for the conclusion, 
that the companion talcose veins and seam belts belong- 
ing to the same general system are newer than the 
mother lode. 

The copper zone of the foot-hills is older than the oldest, 
great central vein system of the western slope, or occurs 
at least in older (triassic) rocks. 

The tertiary age of the veins on the eastern slope of The north- 

. ern strike or 

the Sierra is based on the assumption that the accom- «iver sys- 
panying eruptive rocks are tertiary. It is not distinctly 
stated whether their synchronous occurrence with, or 
relations to the pliocene lavas of the Sierra, or any 
other determined formation, have ever been made out. 
Kichthofen's determinations of the age of the "propyl- 
lites" and "rhyolites" have been shown by Dr. Blake 
to be as hypothetical as the new names he gives these 



118 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



rocks are unnecessary and confusing. They are evi- 
dently not newer than the tertiary; nor can they be 
older than the cretaceous, to which period those frac- 
tures on the eastern slope that are related to the main 
or northwesterly axis of the Sierra must be referred. 
This embraces several of the base metal mines, the 
Santa Maria and Exchequer, in the "Tabular Ex- 
hibit." 

why tertiary The northerly trending axes and vein fissures of the 
Sierra Nevada generally, whether on the eastern or 
western slope, would appear to be newer than the north- 
westerly trends : 1. From the fact that the northerly 
trending uplifts, of which the Cascade range in Ore- 
gon is the continuation, have been shown by Professor 
Le Conte to belong to the tertiary. The Cascades at 
the Dalles are miocene. 2. That they intersect dykes 
which are probably tertiary. 

Transverse, The age of the transverse fissures of axial system No. 

fractures, ° J 

cretaceous, % may j^ ^ game ag ^ a t f No. 1 — cretaceous— for 
the reason that the uplift of the Sierra was uneven; 
being 15,000 at Fisherman's Peak, and only 6,000 at 
Beckworth's Pass. And a similar state of things might 
be referred to in connection with the northerly trans- 
verse fractures, No. 4. But better evidence is desira- 
ble in regard to the age of both these and the twist 
fractures, No. 5. The mineral contents and intersec - 
tions with other systems, or with dykes, may furnish 
the means of determining them. 

FISSURE SI STEMS, AS TYPIFIED BY DISTRICTS, OH 
ORIGIN. 

Groupiog I need not repeat here the geological characteristics 

according to 

results. f mines presented in the Tabular Exhibit; but an ar- 



GEOLOGY. 119 

rangement according to the contents and yield of mines 
typified by well known districts, will help out system- 
atization by comparison. We may designate the vein 
systems according to districts, as follows: 

1. The Mother Lode system. 

(a) In the southern counties; 

(b) At Grass Yalley; 

(c) Accompanying talcose veins. 

2. The Eureka or Sierra Buttes system. 

3. The Base Metal systems, 

(a) Of the western slope; 
(p) Of the eastern slope. 

4. The Comstock Lode system; 

Classifying the subordinate transverse and related 
twist fractures as belonging to the main system, in con- 
nection with which concurrent testimony may prove 
that they arose. 

Or, as related to strike alone, regardlessly of age or 2^J^}Jf to 
contents — pointing to identical continued, or repeated, 
dynamical causes, thus : 

1. Northwesterly strike : (1.) Mother Lode System — 
(a) in the southern counties; (b) at Grass Yalley; (c) ac- 
companying talcose series. (2.) Base Metal System of 
the Foot Hills. 

2. Yfestern slope, cross fractures generally: Eureka 
and Sierra Buttes Systems. 

3. Northerly strike : (a) Comstock Lode System; (b) 
on Western slope; (c) Eastern slope, Base Metal. 

(4).— -POINTS APPLYING TO GEOEGETOWN 
DIVIDE. 

While nearly everything that has been said or tabu- 
lated, relating to vein systems or mining not upon 



120 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Georgetown Divide thus far, finds its application on 
Georgetown Divide, as represented in the preceding 
detailed description — either as a counterpart or a case 
of contrast — there are several points to which your at- 
tention ought to be specially directed : 
True moth- 1. The descriptions of the Quartz Hill, St. Lawrence, 

or lode sys- 

tem. Taylor, and Sliger veins, compared with those of the 

Mother Lode and Grass Valley veins of a northerly or 
northwesterly strike, show conclusively that the great 
fissure zone of the Sierra is here represented in all its 
geological characteristics, accompanied by wealth in 
gold. 

what are 2. The related talcose vein series on Georgetown Di- 

the seam ° 

diggings. v -^ e accom panies the Mother Lode through the south- 
ern mines. The phenomena of the seam diggings are 
associated, however, not with the Mother Lode alone, 
but also other veins of the Mother Lode system. They 
belong in part at least to a later period than the Mother 
Lode svstem, and are due to chemical conditions de- 
scribed under section 4, " Mineral Contents of Yeins,' 
further on. 

PaycMm-^ 3. Lenticular masses, or chimneys of quartz often 

neys in true 

fissure having a feather edge are characteristic of the best 
mines worked on either slope of the Sierra. In fissure 
veins the fissure always continues; and both the quartz 
and the pay are as likely to be repeated in adjacent 
chimneys prolifically as to yield, within certain limits, 
as though there were no ore bodies nor chimneys of 
quartz, and the pay were only found in sheets resem- 
bling veins of coal. These things are in the nature of 
fissure vein deposits. While spaces of 1,000 feet, 
however, upon the Mother Lode, or any other vein, 
may be found rich, or in the form of chimneys or 



veins. 



t GEOLOGY. 121 

lenticular masses, the extensions beyond are more likely 
than not to be poor. 

4. The tabular exhibit affords abundant proof of the character of 

veins in 

general rule that the quartz widens and also increases de P th - 
in richness in depth. There are exceptions, but the 
results of experiences cited from so many localities, 
can not be resisted. In a large majority of instances 
the pay chimneys dip north. 

5. Parallel veins adjacent to rich deposits are usually ^Susana 

i ....... • • i ji t decomposi- 

barren, even it uniting into one vein in depth. In- ton belts, 
stances where veins of the character of the seam dig- 
gings unite with some main quartz vein adjacent in 
depth, are not infrequent in the tabular exhibit. The 
importance of any given belt as an ore channel in depth, 
can only be inferred from these concomitant indications, 
taken along with the yield of the seams. Nor is the 
quantity of quartz in place conclusive as against the 
existence of gold deposits belonging to what might 
once have been a well defined vein. See various tal- 
cose slate and seam diggings in the tabular exhibit and 
section 4 " Contents of "Veins." 

3.— THE COUNTBY BOCK, OB MATBIX. 

1. Geographical Outlines and relations of the Auriferous Slates — Pub- 

lished Sources — Relations to Ancient, Middle Age and Modern 
Rocks —Associated Granites. 

2. Historical Position of the Slates. 

3. Stratigraphy of the Sierra — Scenic Features — Uniformity of Strike — 

Evidence of Folding— Position of Great Gold Vein Region— Lime- 
stone Masses — Stratigraphic Details. 

4. Lithology and Distribution of Rocks in Detail — General Lithological 

Features — Metamorphism — Lithol Details. 

5. Granite Regions. 



122 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Fundimen- 
tal to the 
mining in- 
dustry. 



(1).— GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES AND RELATIONS 

OF THE AUKIFEKOUS SLATE FORMATION OF THE WEST- 
ERN SLOPE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 

I have now pointed out the position and the rela- 
tions of all the notable veins and seam-belts; and delin- 
eated the character of the deposits developed by min- 
ing. The conditions under which the miner operates 
in seeking gold in veins would be very imperfectly 
stated without some account of the country rock, in 
which these veins are distributed, and in which they 
apparently originated. The geography and relations to 
neighboring formatious, of the world-famed auriferous 
slates of the Sierra Nevada, should have been deter- 
mined, or become the property of the public, in outline 
at least, a great many years ago.* 



Jurassic to 
carbonifer- 
ous. 



HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE SLATES: THREE 

AGES. 

"While the slates in the longitudinally central or vein- 
bearing portions of the Sierra are accompanied by 
Jurassic fossils, as in Mariposa County, the silicious 
strata developed near the summit, as at Redding Soda 
Springs, have a relationship in strike to the older trias- 
sic and carboniferous rocks found fossiliferous and also 
gold-bearing in Plumas County. 



* Published Soueces. — P. T. Tyson, in a report to the Secretary of 
War in 1849, described the principal lithological characteristics and 
the physical relief of the Sierra Nevada. Win. P. Blake and others, in 
the Pacific Railroad reports dating down to 18G2, and the members of 
the Geological Survey of California since 1860, besides various travelers 
and contributors to the United States records of the Bureau of Mining 
Statistics, and to the journals of the day, have contributed to the gen- 
eral knowledge on the subject. The State of California has appropri- 
ated $250,000 for the publication of such information lying at the 
foundation of her peculiar industry. 



GEOLOGY. 123 

Other fossils of the period next preceding the Juras- 
sic, have been found in the form of impressions on the 
surface of the slates, at several localities in the region 
embraced in the accompanying map. 

I refer to the triassic fossils found at Coloma, on Triassic. 
Placerville divide, and contributed by John Conness to 
Dr. Trask, (goniatites) ; also fossils found at a point two 
miles* west of Spanish Flat, on Georgetown divide, by 
Gorham Blake; (viz: of a cephalapod which could not 
be distinguished from the belemnite found on the Mari- 
posa estate, and a goniatite, found also in the Hum- 
boldt mountains of Nevada.) Yvhitney, in volume 1, 
Geology of California, sets this formation down as cor- 
responding to the upper Trias beds of Hallstadt, and 
Saint Cassian, in the Alps. 

Near the western base of the Sierra, in Butte County, carbomfer- 

J ous- 

there are still older rocks than the Triassic. I refer to 

those containing the carboniferous fossils found at 

Pence's ranch, near the foot of Table Mountain. Not 

far from the summit of the Sierra, in Plumas County, 

there are found fossiliferous rocks of the same remote 

age. 

If the strike of the slates then, associated with local- Basin of an- 
cient longi- 

ities definitely located as to their geological position, *]£j e sub " 
by fossils, may be taken as an index of the age of the 
rocks at the base and summit of the range, respectively, 
on Georgetown divide, it would appear that there are 
older roclcs than the central zone of gold-bearing slates, 
both at the base and the summit — the eastern and western 
margins of the ancient basin in which were formed the 
auriferous slates of the Sierra Nevada. 

The older rocks of the Bedding Soda Springs, at the oldest rocks 

in the 

head of Forest Hill divide, are strikingly different in sierra. 



1'24 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

appearance from the slates occupying the greater por- 
tion of the slope of the Sierra westward of them. They 
are white, highly silicious, and crystalline in their char- 
acter. These characteristics are observable in a less 
marked degree on Georgetown divide, where thinly 
bedded series of the same character of rocks are found 
in the Tell's Mountain range, interstratified with gneiss- 
oid rocks, and mica slates, showing a close relationship 
in their lithological character to the granites themselves. 
J. E. Clayton confirms me in having observed a similar 
series of (probably ancient) crystalline rocks, near the 
summit of the Sierra, on its western slope; and states 
that their lithological character suggests to him their 
possible identity with a series of rocks found by him 
across the mountains, on the Nevada side, at Silver 
Peak; containing an abundance of fossils of Silurian age. 

Pilot Hill, situated near the edge of the granites to 
the west of the auriferous slate formation, is composed 
of crystalline rock, differing considerably from any- 
thing found anywhere near the center of the geological 
basin of slates. 

Concerning the geological age of these rocks' of the 
western slope, we have, then, three points established : 
carboni. \ m That they are situated in a granitic basin, the rim 

ferous rims. J u 

of which, on the east and west sides, is as old as the 
carboniferous period; its lithological relations to the 
devonian and silurian rocks of Nevada never having 
been followed out. The rocks at both the western and 
eastern rim are crystalline, and different in character 
from those in the center, 
coai plant 2. That in it were deposited sediments which formed 

and reptilx- L 

an ages. qI^q rocks of the three grand, ancient subdivisions of 



GEOLOGY. 125 

Geology, viz : the Carboniferous, the Triassic, and the 
Jurassic, distributed as follows : 

(a) Of the Carboniferous period, the outcrops of 
which have been identified both near .the eastern and 
western rims of the basin. 

(b) Of the main body of auriferous slates, composed £j£ t ^ r ded 
of two periods, viz : the Triassic and Jurassic ; the geo- 
graphical distribution of which, from the evidence of 

the fossils found, is mixed. So that we must look for 
the present to lithology as our only guide to their his- 
torical position. (See under Lithology.) 

(c) The localities, so far as determined, belonging to JJSSa 
the newest period (the Jurassic), are situated princi- slop0, 
pally near the center of the basin. And the oldest of 

the two named formations, as developed by means of 
fossiliferous evidence found on Georgetown Divide and 
in Plumas County, at points well toward the eastern 
rim, and also well toward the western rim (at Coloma) ; 
underlies the main body of the Jurassic slates. 

Under Physical Geography I have described the un- 
dulations that are everywhere associated with higher 
degrees of metamorphism. 

Under Stratigraphy will be found the key to the Related 
foldings of the slates which took place in the center 
and throughout the whole width of the basin. 

And under Lithology will be found facts furnishing 
our only remaining clue, in the absence of thorough 
paleontological research, to further the details concern- 
ing the age of auriferous rocks. 

Descriptions of the fossils referred to will be found 
in Paleontology, vols. 1 and 2 of the Geological Survey, 
and in connection with Blake's and Newberry's geologi- 
cal reports in the U. S. B>. E. explorations. 



126 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

(3.)— STKATIGKAPHY OF THE SIEREA. 

From ocean That the slate-forming Binds were in general depos- 

bed to • . 

mountain ited in pretty deep water, throughont a long period of 
time, we have good reason to believe, from their con- 
sistency, and from their probable thickness. No care- 
ful geological measurement of the thickness in feet, has 
ever been attempted. Yet it would seem that in the 
extreme simplicity and regularity of the bedding of 
the slates as indicated at the surface, along the entire 
western slope of the range, we should find it not diffi- 
cult to hit upon an explanation of the precise method 
of granitic uplift whereby the off-shore strata of mud 
became shaped into a dome of such unparalleled sub- 
limity as that witnessed in a profile section across the 
Sierra Nevada. This dome presents to our view an 
unbroken and almost perfect arc, over a base of 70 
miles, having an altitude, at the head of Georgetown 
Divide, of 8,000 to 10,000 feet. (See Stratigraphy.) 

Vertical dip Dip. — ^ stratigraphical section of the western slope 
uncon orm- ^ ^ e gi erra> as l a id down in profile, shows the posi- 
tion of the gold-bearing slates overlying the "primi- 
tive" or palaeozoic gneiss and crystalline schists of the 
summit belt in the great dome of the Sierra, to be very 
far from regular, or conformable to the remarkable ven- 
tical dip which is the principal scenic and mining 
feature of the slates toward the foot-hills. 



Low east. Between Tell's mountain range and the rich vein 

em a 
west* 
dips. 



western region of the mother lode and its continuation north 



ward, there are on Placerville Divide many square 
miles — hundreds, I might have said — of gneissoid mica- 
ceous slates, lying nearly horizontal, or even dipping 
to the westward along the southern margin of the ac- 



GEOLOGY. 127 

companying map— on the road from Placerville to Vir- 
ginia City. 

This is a noteworthy exception to what has hitherto 
been regarded as the rule, that of an unvarying easterly 
dip at a steep angle. 

"We find, then, in the stratigraphy of the auriferous ^f^fawe 
slates, not a continuous vast bedding of such astound- 
ing thickness as would be implied in a conformable 
stratification with the dip, from base to summit ; but 
every evidence of folding, like the folding which took 
place in the Alleghanies, and has been demonstrated by 
Rogers; while at the eastern end, the geological base 
of the series, we find the slates very plainly and very 
naturally superimposed upon silicious and crystalline 
schists, the gneissoid strata referred to ; and these in 
turn upon the foundation rock of identical mineral- 
ogical constituency, the granitic core of the Sierra 
Nevada. 

Where the dip of the slates in the basin is steep, the Local de* 

tiills 01 

angle nevertheless varies greatly. Sometimes it is to Jp ke aud 
the east, and one quarter of a mile off it is to the west 
again. The angle of easterly dip varies from 40 to 
90 degrees. In all probability, zones of low angles 
and high angles of dip might be traced for some dis- 
tance in the line of the strike of the slates. 

In making a cross section, all that can be said is that Prevailing 
the prevailing dip is to the east; which is equivalent to 
saying that the eastern end of the slope is lifted, and 
at the same time the apex of each anticlinal is shoved 
away, perhaps, from the main axis of the Sierra. 

At Greenwood, and numerous other localities occur Notiami- 

' ation from 

sandstones and conglomerates in various stages of P ressure - 
metamorphism, dipping conformable with the slates. 



128 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

This fact shows conclusively that the lamination of the 
slate is actual bedding, and not to be ascribed to 
cleaveage from lateral pressure. 
Dip in can- It has been remarked that the dip at the bottom of 

ons and •*• 

mine8 - El Dorado Canon on Forrest Hill Divide, 1,200 feet 
deep, is steeper at the bottom than at the top. Curves 
of this character are universal in all the canons in 
either slope, and are observable in cuts, shafts, and 
ravines in the mining region, within distances apart of 
10 to 50 feet vertical ; and are quite as perceptible as in 
the canons, 1,000 feet deep. The convexity of the 
curve in these is frequently towards the west, however, 
as well as toward the east, as at the Doncaster mine. 
Such convexity furnishes us with a clue for the study of 
stratigraphic details, inasmuch as the' western con- 
vexity must necessarily belong to the western half of 
an anticlinal, and the eastern convexity must, in like 
manner, belong to the eastern half of an anticlinal. 

Example At Grass Valley, Nevada County, Professor Silliman 

north of J ' 

Georgetown rec0 g n i ses a synclinal, or geological valley, as follows, in 
the dip and strike of the veins mentioned, entirely con- 
formably to that of the slates in general, occurring be- 
tween the New York Hill Yein and the Allison Kanch 
vein; and a saddle or anticlinal in the valley between the 
veins of Cincinnati Hill and Massachusetts Hill, which 
is repeated below and to the westward of these claims 
by the elevation of the syenitic mass in which the No- 
rambagua occurs : 

<** 2> £> % <* 



U 



v* 6 



TABULAR EXHIBIT OF VEINS AND MINING, 



ACCOMPANYING REPi'RT 1.1X GEORGETOWN DIVIDE 











EE " TtoM 


or- y EMS AKD 


hmults OF 


MINING, CONTINUING NORTH 


WAt 


DS 










VEH.3. 


GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. M W?/" 


?ttta a 


VIEl.n * fROKT. 






— «.—• - l^l^ 




— - l-fflMarls 






■"" p z:;.z™-°"- "°- 






■::::b;:[;:: 






















Z'il 


.«..«. 




















-- 






- 








■pi: 






























iiiPs 






°™"" 




































' ' 




■ 












«-«ass 














.« 


; 


— 




o _ 




s a — 


•ssssi 


*SRa-.SAT— r- r 






•!: 


.,, 




|Sr» 






>i'r.. c °""' 7 ' 




«i 


v,. 


.... 

" 














"r'."":!.":!".^.::-.-.:::::::: 






















M:;f 







4.-BEL 


1TIOTO 




AND RESULTS OF MINING Al 


THE EASTER 


N ItASEOI-'Tljr: UI'LIfTEl 


GOLD BEAR 


NG SLATE FORMATION. 








,,,, 


r5S5"sS 


J 1 ;' ;■.'••■;'.'■!'.• '. , ..' : - : ;' ! '.''.'. : .■.', : .' ••.'.'.;''•: : ■'■:'.■■■' : ; .'.' ''•; v,f'::v::'^ "'"' 


T 




|= 


























.' 




! |l<»| ■>«».» 






^•— 












rc-w.wi7.wo.... 






|g«Cii| 








■- 


" 




ks*- 


.« 




















W 












—- 


"SBSSSSS* 86 


„.„... 


- 







GEOLOGY. 129 

The course and dip of the Grass Valley veins, he fur- 
ther says, are conformable with the rocks, and "the 
streams have in general excavated their twenty valleys 
in a like conformable manner." 

At the Princeton Mine, Mariposa County, which is J™™^" 
situated in the center of Bear Valley, Mariposa County f^l ge " 
— a valley trending northwest and southeast, parallel to 
the Sierra — Prof. Blake observed a stratigraphic sec- 
tion of the auriferous slates at right angles to the crest 
of the Sierra, namely, from the Bear Creek Mount- 
ains on the west to the Mount Bullion range on the 
east; and recognized a plication, or folding, in the form 
of a simple anticlinal. At the vein, which is conform- 
able in strike and dip, the slates are soft and finely 
laminated, light colored or drab at the surface and 
black in depth, with numerous intercalations of sandy 
layers, passing into coarse grits, sandstones or con- 
glomerates. In both of the bounding ridges there are 
only heavy metamorphic conglomerates. Magnesian 
rocks accompany the vein, in the region of the soft 
shales of the valley. 

In nearly all the high ridges on Georgetown Divide, Sil ^°^\ 
enumerated as trending parallel to the Sierra, there is ™ h e £ or " 
observed a high degree of silicious metamorphism, ac- 
companied either by porphyritic or crystalline rocks; 
while the intermediate spaces consist of soft light or 
dark shales, showing zones of basic metamorphism, 
and containing hydrous-magnesian minerals. 

RELATION OF GRANITIC AEEAS. 

Between Pilot Hill and the Little South Fork of the 
Middle Fork, there are few out-crops of granite. 



130 



GEOBGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Junction of 
slates and 
granites, 



South, 



East of that point all is granite; slate is the excep- 
tion. 

The American Kiver, between Cape Horn, above Col- 
fax, and Folsom, runs in general along the strike of 
the slates. It follows the line of their strike for a mile 
or two, and then, turning abruptly, crosses the strike 
at right angles, or in the direction of the slope of the 
ISierra, for a few hundred yards; only to resume afresh 
its former course in the strike of slates, in the whole of 
the next long reach of the river. This is characteristic 
of that portion of the American Eiver for a distance of 
35 or 40 miles by the river. At Wild Goose, the Amer- 
ican follows this line of strike near the junction of the 
slates with the granite; affording excellent opportunity 
for a stratigraphic section at the base of the Sierra, or 
the ivestern rim of our auriferous basin. One mile from 
Auburn, just before coming to Smith's house, on the 
American Kiver, on the old road to Coloma, occurs a 
dyke of fine grained syenite. Trappean intrusions join 
the granite abruptly, and quartz is abundant in this 
region. 

For a similar section of the slates near the eastern 
rim of the basin, Tell's Mountain range offers a good 
exposure. Here becomes evident the grand fact that 
the slates near the summit are thinly bedded, and are 
in large part carried away by denudation ; for we can 
see to what extent denudation has left the granite ex- 
posed. The dip at Tell's Mountain is at a very low 
angle to the east. 

On Placerville Divide the granite of the summit 
reaches far down the slope; and the South Fork of the 
American appears to have followed for some distance 
near the northern rim of a promontory of this rock. 



GEOLOGY. 131 

The dip of the slates along the South Fork of the 
American, adjacent to the granite outcrop, is, accord- 
ingly, changed to all angles, and nearly all points of the 
compass, from west to south and east. In the Slate 
Mountain range, just across the river on Georgetown 
Divide, the dip is southerly and westerly. For ten 
miles on the Placerville road, above Brockliss' Bridge, 
the dip is at a low angle to the west. 

SCENIC FEATURES- UNIFORMITY OF STRIKE. 

Where the slates are not associated with granitic out- j^lf 8 ^ 
crops there is a remarkable regularity in their strike. 
Over a section nearly fifty miles east and west in a 
straight line, there occurs no other geological feature so 
prominent to the observer. The direction, of course, 
varies in places, but only slightly. I have found nothing 
anywhere near the central or western portions of the 
slate basin indicative of a cataclysm such as the " im- 
mense edgewise longitudinal thrust which the mass of 
the Sierra must have undergone, by which vast bodies 
of strata, once continuous for hundreds of miles, have 
been torn asunder, portions engulfed, and the remainder 
twisted so as to lie at all angles with regard to the orig- 
inal direction of the mass, but not so far removed as to 
leave any doubts of their having once been parts of the 
same continuous formation," imagined by Professor 
Whitney, in volume 1, Geology of California; [See 
under Limestone, below.] 

The most prominent scenic features of the foot hill re- significant 

gravestone 

gion are the long lines of slates standing on end like 6late - 
gravestones, continuously in the same general line of 
strike from Calaveras to Butte County. The general 
parallelism and perfect regularity of strike is, as re- 



132 



GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Unbroken 
plateau 
slope. 



Birdseye 



Corrobor- 
ative testi- 
mony. 



Ancient 
river flats. 



marked, the grand feature of the auriferous slate form- 
ation, over the entire western slope. The local variation 
of strike in the Slate Mountain range, (accounted for,) 
is the only exception I have seen in about ten thousand 
square miles of the formation. 

William P. Blake, in his visit to the mining region, in 
1864, recognized another of the characteristic physical 
features of the western slope of the Sierra, and cor- 
rectly described the enormous erosions in the auriferous 
slates as having taken place in ' ' one unbroken plateau 
or slope." 

Whatever may have been the method of tilting the 
slates underwent, their plateau-slope character, as 
shown in one grandly regular, easy line of profile from 
base to summit, on which the undulations described 
under Physical Geology are insignificant, is a feature 
anywhere noticeable to the geological observer. But it 
is nowhere else so unmistakably recognized, and so 
striking to the eye, as from the dome of the State Cap- 
itol, at Sacramento. The parallel lines of this slope 
are, from that point, seen to lie level behind one another . 
like the lines of a level plain. [See fig. 2 page 9.] 

Professor Blake clearlytestifi.es to the same facts, viz., 
that the auriferous slates trend in a northwesterly course 
"with great regularity, and without any abrupt local 
plications or disturbances of the beds." "The plica- 
tions, where they exist, are upon a magnificent scale, 
and very regular." — (Geological Reconnoissance of Cal- 
ifornia.) 

The same idea of plateau character connected with the 
slate formation has frequently suggested itself to me 
from local observation of the bed-rock flats associated 
with the gravel courses of ancient rivers. 



GEOLOGY. 133 

DYNAMICAL CAUSES. 

I need not enter into any particulars concerning the cosmicai 

r ■* t problem. 

forces which caused the original foldings of the slates, 
the formation of this plateau or gradual slope, nor the 
character of the sediments which made folding and 
plateau formation possible, and unavoidable. For the 
operation of the same ever-enduring, simple physical 
forces, see Dana's Geology. 

EVIDENCES OE FOLDING. 

The occasional parallel granite belts or dykes, inter- Plutonic 

pores. 

mediate between the summit and base of the Sierra on 
other divides, and on this one especially near the east^ 
ern and western rims, show conclusively that whatever 
may have been the origin of the granite, (whether it 
was Plutonic metamorphism or eruptive ejection,) the 
slates at midslope must have been extensively folded 
by the operation of the same agencies which enabled 
the granites to protrude. 

If it was eruptive ejection, then the slates were folded 
and lifted along with them. If it was Plutonic meta- 
morphism of deeper seated strata, the strata were cor- 
rugated, and the lower metamorphized ones bent up- 
ward, and afterwards denuded off at the surface, and so 
exposed. 

In neither case is the rationale of the slates at mid- sediment of 

an ancient 

slope altered. The thickness of the slates, however, might vaiiey. 
be differently concluded upon. On the latter hypothe- 
sis, the frequent exposure of granites in parallel belts 
jonformable to the slate, as on the Grass Valley divide, 
would imply thin bedding. In the tabulur exhibit of 
mines, the probable limits of thickness are referred to 
as from one and a half, to three miles, vertical i That it 



131 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Fig. 30.-STRATIG-BAPHIC SECTION. 



A — Tell's Mountain; nearly hori- 
zontal slates of Tell's Mountain and 
Mount Dana ; probably as old as the 
carboniferous. 

BB— Bobb's Mountain; Triassic of 
Colfax and of Plumas County. 

ft— Sand Mountain. 

G — Pilot Hill ; Triassic of Coloma ; 
W§0§, Copper veins. 

^f^^Ml^fl BB — Carboniferous; limestones of 
^4MmM Plumas Co. and Pilot Hill ; limestones 
of Butte Co. 

E — Cretaceous ; marine Folsom. 

i^Tertiary, accompanied by coal de- 
posits ; partially marine ; parti'ly like H 

G — Post tertiary clays, adobes, 
loams and gravel. 

S — Peat of the Tule formation, in- 
tercalated by fresh or brackish water ; 
lacustrine deposits^ like G, forming 
the basin of Sacramento Biver. 

J— Granite, underlying all. 

IK— Volcanic craters and overflows 
at the Summit, damming the northern 
end of Lake Tahoe, and filling up or 
capping all the gravel-filled cartons of 
the tertiary period; being of the same 
age as the line of demarcation FG. 

L— Jurassic of Spanish Flat, Kelsey 
and Spanish Dry Diggings Kange; po- 
sition of the Georgetown seam belts. 

if— Gneiss of Tell's Mountain and 
Brockliss' Bridge; probably older than 
the carboniferous rocks. 

JV — Grey Eagle Hill ; horizontal 
slates flanking the granite and gneiss 
country on Placerville Divide, adja- 
cent to Georgetown Divide. 

P— Goat Mountain and Greenwood 
trend. 

I— Mount Pluto ; volcanic peak at 
the north end of Lake Tahoe. 




K— Twin peaks head of Blackwood Valley, Lake Tahoe 



could have been more, is not impossible; though the 
probabilities would be against that supposition, until 
the fact could be demonstrated by stratigraphical evi- 
dence. In prosecuting this inquiry, it should not be 
forgotten that the midslope region was in the Triassic 
and Jurassic periods the center of- a valley; and the 
position of an axis of depression like that of Sacra- 
mento Valley, having older rocks as elsewhere demon- 
strated, on the east and west. 



GEOLOGY. 135 

The folding, and general stratigraphic character of the 
slates of the region, according to these facts, is rep- 
resented by the foregoing section across the Sierra 
Nevada. 

The granites of the summit and of Folsom were the 
abutments of the arch; and the sediments of the region, 
which were originally sinking at mid slope, forming a 
geological valley, must have begun to arch up and fold 
the moment the abutments began to be brought nearer 
together. 

POSITION OF THE PAYING VEIN EEGION, OE MOTHEE 
LODE, ETC. 

The question arises where are situated the oldest 
rocks of the mining region ? Are the veins, which most 
concern us, in the older or newer rocks ; at the top or 
bottom of the Jurassic series? 

From the above section and from the remarks made Top of the 

series. 

under historical geology, it will appear that their posi- 
tion is most probably in the newer rocks, or at the top 
of the series. The oldest rocks lie near the base, and 
near the summit, of the Sierra; those inclosing the prin- 
cipal gold veins are near mid-slope. 

LIMESTONE MASSES. 

Neither on the Tuba nor in the basin of the Anier- i enticuiar 

bodies. 

ican, is there anything like a continuous limestone 
formation. Limestone occurs in small lenticular masses 
of white and crystalline rock, conformably to the dip 
and strike of the slates. A large cave exists in a 
body of this character, at "Alabaster Cave," near Pilot 
Hill. On the road from Auburn to Georgetown, lime- 
stone has been quarried, and manufactured into lime 
extensively for many years. Dolomite also occurs in 



136 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Genuine 
bedded 
limestone, 
carbonifer- 
ous. 



Undeter- 
mined age. 



Interrupted 

limestone 

series. 



A northerly 
and a north- 
westerly 
trend. 



Amador County, in narrow snow-white veins, travers- 
ing talcose and chloritic rocks, and bearing coarse free 
gold. 

A zone of limestone country, several miles wide, and 
many miles in length, occurs further south in Tuolumne 
and Stanislaus river basins ; and limestone is again 
found in Butte County, where it is fossiliferous, and 
of carboniferous age. 

In the limestone region of Tuolumne and Calaveras 
counties, this rock is conformable to a parallel with the 
slates. Like the slates, it is generally vertical in its 
planes of structure, which are planes of bedding. At 
Abbey's Ferry limestone is found in connection with 
mica slate, and granite. Though to some extent meta- 
morphic, it is more regularly stratified than the lime- 
stones of the Tejon, where the metamorphic action was 
more intense. That of Tuolumne has many blue layers 
and veins, all trending with the strike of the slates. 
[Blake's Becon.] 

The limestone outcrops near the Coloma and Auburn 
limekilns on Georgetown road, and at Yankee Jims, 
Colfax, on Wolf Creek below Grass Valley; also 
near Black's Bridge, six or seven miles above Nevada 
City; and at Emory's crossing, on the Midde Yuba, 
continuing thence northward for thirty miles, and cross- 
ing Feather river below Strawberry Yalley on the 
Marysville and Laporte road, (being claimed as a quarry 
by Butts and Diamond, near Camptonville, etc.,) are ex- 
amples of geographical distribution. 

These deposits are obviously not all of one continu- 
ous formation, nor the result of any reasonably im- 
aginable dislocation. The most that can be said of 
them is that there is possibly a zone of interrupted 



GEOLOGY. 137 

limestone intercalations continuing toward the north, in 
a line parallel to the northerly trend of the course of 
Sierra at the head of the American and Yuba basins. 
There is no reason indeed, why local masses of lime- 
stone should not have been forming throughout all of 
the three periods represented by the auriferous slates. 

There is near Ringgold a disconnected mass of lime- Guesses at 

00 connections 

stone about one mile square, the beds striking E. of 
N. and dipping E. 50°, which is considered by Whitney 
to be in the same strike of the slates as that at Indian 
Diggings, eighteen miles southeast of Einggold, at 
Cave "Valley, at the limekilns on Wolf Creek, Nevada 
County; and that of the limestones of Pences ranch, 
Butte County; having accordingly "the position that 
one connected group should hold." But there is no 
connected group. He recognizes another belt running 
nearly parallel to the last named, "situated about ten 
miles further west ; " crossing the south fork of the 
American at Salmon Falls, and connecting with a 
similar deposit at Clarksville, eight miles southeast of 
Eolsom. 

STBATIGRAPHIC DETAILS. 

The granite belt of the foot hills lies west of Auburn, 
and west of Coloma; extending to the edge of the val- 
ley as far as any rock is visible. 

This belt is, geologically, the most important erupted 
axis of the entire region. As remarked, it is the first 
rock met with on leaving the plains. It continues 
north, as represented in the general vein map, in the 
strike of the slates, west of the Grass Yalley series.* 

At Logtown, seven miles southwest of Placerville, 
several gold-bearing veins occur in granite. Four of 
*Compare with N. & N. W. axes, Fig. 29, p. 108. 



138 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

these — the Empire, Pocahontas, Excelsior, and El Do- 
rado, strike northwest and southeast, parallel with the 
Mother Lode series. 

Geizly Flat, sixteen miles east-southeast from Pla- 
cerville, has veins also in granite, containing sulphurets 
of lead and zinc. 

The strike of the slates at Placerville isN., 21° W. ; else- 
where from N. 20° to N. 30° W. At Sarahsville, on 
Forrest Hill divide, the strike is N. 5 Q to 10° W. 

The strike of the slates further north than George- 
town, as at Grass Valley, becomes more nearly north 
and south. 

The hills along the south fork of the American, at 
Coloma, consist of low projecting points of granite. 

4.— LITHOLOGY AND DISTKIBUTION OF EOCKS 
IN DETAIL. 

specimens. I collected for notice under this head about five hun- 
dred specimens of rock and vein material. The former 
are important, as showing the details of a geological 
section across the entire width of the auriferous slates. 

They are all located by approximate measurements 
connected with fixed points upon the map. 

The latter represent, beside the vein material, the 
peculiarities of the country rock in which different mines, 
at nearly all points on the divide are situated. They 
consist of ores, minerals, gangs, and adjacent country 
rock associated with veins and seams, accompanying 
the sections and descriptions given under III., Mining.* 

* See note foot of page — . 



GEOLOGY. 139 

GENEEAL LITHOLOGICAL FEATUEES. 

With the exception of granites and the erupted 
trachytes, all the rocks on the divide fall under the 
heads of fragmentary and metamorphic. 

Clsij slates, talcose slates, and sometimes mica slates, ?° c n ks c l am - 

J ' ' ' lfied arid 

alternate in bands running with the general strike of the grouped - 
slates. 

METAMOEPHISM. 

There is a low degree of metamorphism near the cen- 
ter of the slope. The slates are generally light colored, 
and thinly laminated. For many miles where the color 
is light, the slates have apparently changed but very lit- 
tle from the original sediment. Except in the matter of 
consolidation, the same holds true over half the country. 

The more highly metamorphosed portions are adjacent ^ d ee r ^ s e8 
to the vein or seam systems; or to ridges of green stone- 
The latter is itself metamorphic, and sometimes crys- 
tallized out into definite diorite; sometimes crypto 
crystalline, as aphanite. 

These "dykes" are considered by many geologists and Eruptive 
others as intrusive, consequently as belonging to a 
later period of eruption through fissures. I have not 
hesitated in expressing my opinion that they are meta- 
morphic, as I have seen repeated evidences of their be- 
ing formed in much the same manner, and by the same 
causes, as the veins themselves, and the gouge associated 
with the veins. The traps and diorites are found in a 
thousand places in all stages of transition, from indis- 
putable slate to indisputable trap or diorite which can- 
not be distinguished lithologically from the "massive" 
or "eruptive" rock. The specimens I have collected 
will themselves testify to this fact. 



or 

metamor- 
ptiic. 



1-40 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Occurrence. The " dykes " occur in parallel lenses from 6 to 10 and 
20 feet wide. They are repeated irregularly, sometimes 
every few hundred yards apart ; generally associated 
with ridges. 

MINEKAL BELTS. 

Both the slates and greenstones are traversed by 
quartz veins which are full of crystallized iron pyrites, 
associated with gold. In some metamorphic zones the 
country rock changes into serpentine, or serpentinoid 
rock; or into " soapstone," a rock of soapy feel, more 
or less approaching the mineral steatite. 

The slates of certain zones, especially where there is 
basic metamorphism, decompose very easily at the sur- 
face, to a depth of 20 and even 150 feet, so that they can 
be readily excavated with a pick, or with the hydraulic 
pipe. 

LITHOLOGICAL DETAILS. 
sandstones The character of the slates is in all the gradations from 

and con- 

giomerates. roofing slate to sandstone and conglomerate. The lat- 
ter is sometimes so highly metamorphosed as to be 
barely recognizable with certainty. Masses of sand- 
stone occur in various stages of metamorphism; patches 
retaining almost entirely their original condition. 

Locations of On Irish Creek the slates are like roofing slate. At 

varmes of ° 

Kelsey's and at Georgetown they are more talcose and 
magnesian. Generally around Georgetown they are 
very slightly metamorphosed, and either light colored 
or black and compact. West of Greenwood and east 
of Forney's there is a great deal of metamorphism. At 
Sarahsville on Forrest Hill Divide the slates are light 
colored and talcose. In the neighborhood of Auburn 
and northward, there are hard clay slates. 



h1 ate. 



GEOLOGY. 141 



Abundance 
like that of 
S. F. 



Several of the most noteworthy localities of metamor- 
phism into serpentine are at Bald Hill on Georgetown 
Divide and Brimstone Plains on the road from Sarahs- 
ville (on Forrest Hill Divide) to Independence. This 
serpentine "forms the largest mass of the kind in the 
State," being lithologically, according to Prof. Blake, 
identical with that found at Fort Point, San Francisco. 

Masses of serpentine also occur in the midst of other * e 5J£J nlt8 
metamorphic rocks near the junction of the slates with 
the granite, north of Auburn; and associated with the 
seam diggings at numerous points on the Divide. 

Tlie Granite of the foot-hill belt between Auburn and Granite 

dykes 111 

Sacramento is itself traversed by feldspathic or granitic gramte - 
veins. It weathers in large, round blocks, looking like 
great boulders, scattered over the surface. 

On Placerville Divide the granite sets in opposite Boundaries 
Coloma, cutting off there, as well as on Georgetown Di- 
vide the basin of the slates from the Yalley. 

Toward the eastward the granite again sets in between 
Sportsman's Hall and Brockliss' Bridge on Placerville 
Divide; and on the east slope of Mount Kobb on George- 
town Divide. 

In the basin of the Kubicon, at the head of George- kittle Yo - 

7 ° Semites. 

town Divide, the granite is remarkable on account of 
showing immense cleavage lines, which have been cut 
into by streams, and followed for a short distance only 
before leaving them again to seek their nearest course 
by gravitation to the river. In overlooking this country 
from a high mountain, it is almost impossible to recog- 
nize, or with the eye to follow, the course of the streams 
in the valleys and mountain sides, owing to the abund- 
ant repetition of partially eroded cleavage courses, like 
little Yosemite Valleys. 



142 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



4.— MINEKAL CONTENTS OF YEINS. 

1. First principles concerning Ore Channels. 

2. Distribution of Gold. 

3. Solution and precipitation of Gold, Iron, and Silver in Nature. 

4. Processes of Chemical Concentration. 

5. Mechanical concomitants. 

6. The Mineralizers. 

7. Philosophy of Chemical Action and aggregate results. 

8. Mineralogical contents and Paragenesis. 

9. Age of Gold-bearing Formations Predicated upon the origin of 

Gold. 
10. Age of Great Central Vein System of the Slates. 



Illustrated 
by compari 
son.- 



1.— FIKST PKINCIPLES CONCEKNING OEE CHANNELS. 

When the light first dawned upon the placer miner, 
that there were ancient rivers in the hills richer than 
those of "'49," he was not slow to discover or take ad- 
vantage of the first principles of hydraulic mining. 
There was surely a channel ; that channel had a de- 
finite (though winding) course ; it had a deep gutter ; 
and it had a rim, or rim rock, on either side. 

The man who now expects to pursue profitably the 
business of hydraulic mining without regarding these 
first principles, would be deemed a strange phenomenon 
if he did not, sooner or latter, outline his luck. 

We have found in these slates great gold deposits, 

JEJ"" ""«"" such as the world never knew before California " came 
out." We have formed an idea of the outlines, of the 
changes, and of the position (in Time) of this formation, 
which has yielded the world $1,000,000,000 in twenty- 
three years ; and we have discovered that the source of 
all the gold is in certain subterranean ore channels, as 
well defined in many respects as are those of the ancieut 
rivers. 

Luck in It may appear some dav, when we know a little more 

quartz mm- " x x •/ » 

about it, that the man who expects to pursue profitably 



Luck in pla 
cer mining 



What we 
know about 



GEOLOGY. 143 

the business of vein mining, without regarding or un- 
derstanding the nature of these channels, ought to have 
expected some clay to outlive his luck. 

(2.)- DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 
Of the fifty or sixty elementary substances to which character- 

d J J isticsand 

chemistry reduces matter, we find gold to be one of the occurence - 
heaviest, scarcest, and most independent of alliance, or 
tendency to mineral intermarriage ; yet, like silver, the 
next following as a precious metal, and as truly as 
iron, clay, and quartz, it is universally distributed. 

Silver is found in solution in sea-water, the world's ah ages, 
envelope. Gold, though scarcer, we now begin to real- 
ize, is found in all countries. It has been found crystal- 
lized in veins or precipitations, belonging to all geo- 
logical ages, including, even, the post tertiary in Cal- 
ifornia. 

It could not be otherwise. Gold and silver are both solubility, 
soluble, along with quartz> in the natural waters of the 
earth. They are extracted from their ores in California 
and Nevada largely "in the wet way." (See Age and 
Origin, Section 9, below.) 

In the following table are presented, as far as known, 
the instrumentalities that undoubtedly effect the trans- 
formation of gold, etc., underground, from a solid to a 
fluid state, and vice versa; being a list of the re-agents 
producing : 



1U 



GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 



(3.)— SOLUTION AND PKECIPITATION OF GOLD, LEON AND 
QUAKTZ, IN NATUKE. 

[Words in Koman refer to laboratory processes: those in italic to processes occur- 
ring in nature.] 

1. HOW GOLD, IRON AND SILICA ARE MADE SOLUBLE, AND DIS- 
SOLVED IN WATER. 







RE-AGENTS 




RESULT. 




WHICH, COMING IN CONTACT, PRODUCE CHEMICAL ACTION. 






As Solids. 


Solvent. 


As Fluids, or in 
solution as 


1. 


Ikon, metallic. 


Sulphuric acid and water. 




Sulphate of iron. 


2. 


" oxide. 


Same, from decomposition of 
rites. 


py- 


<( (< 


3. 


" sulphuret. 


Alkaline, carbonate and sulphate 


(< << 






waters. * 






4. 


" Sulphate. 


Water . 




c« <c 


1. 


Gold, metallic. 


Nitrohydrochloric acid (evolving 


Chloride (sesqui) 






chlorine), with water. 




of gold. 


2. 


a a 


Chlorine gas (from salt and sul- 


Chloride(terchlo- 






phuric acid) . 




ride) of gold. 




<( a 


In nature, same, arising from 
decomposition of pyrites 
the never-wanting chloride 
sodium. 


the 
and 

of 


<< (« 


3. 


(< (< 


Sulphate or sulphide of iron 
some way A 


in 


Disulphuret o r 
sesquisulphur- 
et(?) surrend- 
ering sulphur 
to iron on de- 
positing. 


4. 


a (( 


Persulphate of iron. tt 




a a 


5. 


" chloride (ses- 
qui). 
Silica. 


Water. 




Chloride (sesqui) 


1. 


Alkaline (or basic) waters. 




Alkaline (or bas- 










ic) waters. 



GEOLOGY. 



145 



2.— HOW GOLD, IRON AND SILICA AEE PRECIPITATED WHEN THEY 
HAVE BEEN DISSOLVED. 



THE RE-AGENTS 

WHICH COMING IN CONTACT PRODUCE CHEMICAL ACTION. 


RESULT. 


As Fluids 
(in solution) . 


Precipitant. 


As Solids. 


1. Ikon sulphate, in 

water. 

2. Iron sulphate and 

silivate solutions . 

1 . Gold chloride, 

(sesqui). 

2. Gold chloride fter- 

chloridej . 

3 . Gold chloride (ses- 

qui) . 

4. Same. 

5. Same. 

6 . Same. 

7. Same. 

8. Same {ter chloride) 

boiling hot. 

9. Same, cold and 

dilute. 

10.Disulphide(?)as- 
soci'dwith sul- 
phate of iron.t 

1. Silica, dissolved 
in alkaline or 
basic waters . 


Organic matter.* 

Organic matter.* 

Proto-salts (sulphates) 

of iron, and heat. 
Sulphate of Iron. 

Rydrosulphuric acid, 

with heat. 
Rydrosulphuric acid, 

without heat. 
Same. 

Hydrosulphate of am- 
monia. 
Protochloride of tin. 

Sulphydric acid. 

Same. 

Organic matter* 

Acid waters carrying 
sulphates of iron, etc. 


Pyrites. 

Anhydrous oxide of iron, t 

Metallic gold. 

Metallic gold, a black or 
brown powder, being the 
chlorination process. 

Disulphuret of gold; a black 
powder. 

Sesquisulphuret of gold; a 
dark brown powder. 

A black, pulverulent chlo- 
ride (?) which when heat- 
ed evolves fumes of hydro - 
sulphuric acid, leaving 
metallic gold. 

Same. 

"Purple powder of Cas- 

sius" (oxide?) 
Brown sulphur et of gold, 

AuS. 
Black persulphuret, AuS3 . 

Metallic . 
Silica. 



* Sterry Hunt. 

t Hypothesis of John Arthur Phillips. 

tt Similar idea to that of Phillips, definitely confirmed by laboratory process of 
Wurz. 
t As at Steamboat Springs, according to J. A. Phillips. 



(4).— PKOCESSES OF CHEMICAL CONCENTBATION. 
Going back to the dark ages of geology (with Murchi- original 
son and Sterry Hunt), and remembering the high spe- 
cific gravities and first affinities of these metals, we can 

conceive all the gold there was within some vertical 
10 



146 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Active agen- 
cies of con- 
centration. 



Authorities. 



Agency of 
the primi- 
tive ocean. 



Precipita- 
tion and 
resolution. 



miles of the surface, as pretty evenly, disseminated 
through the semi-molten azoic mud. 

Along with the fluvial replacements of material at- 
tending the everlasting rising and sinking of lands, 
chemical affinity or solution has kept this gold and sil- 
ver moving ever since, wherever water moves — precisely 
like all the rest of the 50 or 60 elements of matter, and 
conforming as faithfully now as ever to the laws of 
physics and chemistry that govern all matter. 

This is a resume of the best judgment on the subject, 
of some of the most noted mining geologists in this and 
older mining countries, where the geology of silver and 
gold has been studied for hundreds of years. 

Prof. Sterry Hunt, of Montreal, has published an 
outline of the processes by which the silicious, calca- 
reous, and argillaceous rocks, that form so large a part 
of the earth's crust, may have been generated from a 
primitive fused mass ; and therewith has indicated the 
origin of the salts of the ocean. The first precipitates 
from the ocean would, according to Hunt, have con- 
tained most of the metals. In the subsequent re-solu- 
tion and deposition of these precipitates is to be found 
an explanation of the origin of metalliferous deposits, 
and of their distribution in various formations, either 
as integral parts of the strata, or as deposits in veins, 
the former channels of mineral springs. 

"The metals of the Quebec group," he conceives, 
were originally brought to the surface in watery solu- 
tion, from which they were ' ' separated by the reducing 
agency of organic matter in the form of sulphurets, or 
in the native state, and mingled with the contempora- 
neous sediments. During the subsequent metamor- 
phism of the strata, these metallic materials were taken 



GEOLOGY. 



147 



into solution by alkaline carbonates or sulphurets, and 
re-depositecl in fissures." 

(5). -MECHANICAL CONCOMITANTS OF THE PKOCESS OF 
CONCENTKATION. 

To what depth the original mechanical concentrations Ancient 

slates. 

with water in the soft crust of the globe extended, is a 
matter of slight practical importance. By the same 
laws of physics that now exist, concentrations took place 
in the paleozoic slates that were washed into basins 
and undoubtedly in many places sorted into layers. 

While this action took place at the surface, precisely common 

A j. 1/ chemistry. 

as now, under the surface chemical affinity and chemical 
action must have set in and operated from the earliest 
dawn of creation precisely as now. And the results of 
chemical affinity being quite the same, whether in the 
wet way, or under pressure, or by fire, the methods of 
the chemical concentration of gold were also in general 
the same. 

In the usual and very natural method of drying, work of the 

Jurassic sea. 

wrinkling, and surface oscillation that has caused the 
principal mountains and valleys of the globe, these slate 
muds might have been sinking for a long while, and 
piling up thicker and thicker, at the same time that the 
axis of the Sierra Nevada was rising. This much we 
can infer from the fact that the valley of Alta California 
has itself undergone such a process, being a valley of 
depression. 

The coal mines of Mount Diablo and Corral Hollow 
will easily convince any observer of the latter. The 
coal veins deposited on the top of the cretaceous hills 
are seen to pitch under San Joaquin valley, where they 
have been explored, and also worked. 



148 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



First .ptage. r£^ e j urars i c an( j Triassic muds were no sooner de- 
posited than they were disturbed. The Sierra Nevada 
began to jise before the cretaceous rocks on their 
ilariks (ne&r Shasta, Folsom, etc.), were deposited, 
«ince we : see the .latter lying nearly horizontal, on the 
rap turned vedges of the slates. 

parallelism* Yeins are infiltrated tracks. "What stronger evidence 
is needed, th.ee, of the age c of the gold-bearing veins of 
the Sierra, than that of their general parallelism to the 
axis of uplift and depression? 

inevitable. As soon as these breaks or clacks commenced form- 
ings Quartz, iron, and other minerals commenced pre- 
cipitating in them. As soon as the proper mechanical 
<&act chemical conditions were supplied, from that time 
., forward, and so long as the same laws <oJ chemistry and 
physics remained in force, the same process must have 
contiip^d and must ever continue. 

The present day not being exceptional in that respect, 
there is no reason why vein concentrations should not 
{be gping on now. 

The reason why we find lenticular "ore bodies" or 
chimneys that pinch out in most of the great fissure 

u*fure n '-— e veins of the Tabular Exhibit, is made plain by Fig. 31. 
The dotted line E represents the original fissure. A 
dislocation of the country rock takes place, whereby 
$he angle at the upper B in the foot wall slides down, 
and is now at p in the hanging wall. Of course, the 
hanging wall and the fppt wall— originally identical — 
after this, cease io be parallel. The resulting lense or 
chimney shaped spaces were the recipients of mineral- 
bearing waters. Gouge was added to quartz, by con- 
tinued rubbing, or dislocation of the walls. 



Pinching 
out, gofig< 
ana fault 



GEOLOGY. 



14!) 




Fig. 31. -DISLOCATIONS CAUSING LENSE AND CHIMNEY^ 
SHAPED SPACES. „ 



(6).— THE MINERALIZEKS OF GOLD: SILICA, IKON, ALKA- 
LIES AND SULPHUR, IN AEGILLAOEOUS SEDIMENTS. 

As the gold in quartz veins is undoubtedly attribut- i ns iates, 
able to chemical concentration in the wet way, we may granites. 
reasonably also regard the argillaceous slate formation 
is the matrix of the gold-bearing veins. For if the gold 
solutions were derived from the underlying granite, or 
from matter more modernly erupted through the granite, 
we should find as many gold-bearing veins in the granite 
independently of the slates as in the slates themselves, 
rold-b earing veins are found, it is true, in granite, on 
lacerville Divide at Logtown, as shown in the vein 
>lottings; and at Meadow Lake, on the head waters of the 
iouth Yuba. But the fact remains that the great paying 
reins of California, Australia, and the Ural, are in slate. M6challlcal 
As already remarked, gold is pretty universally clis- ing°Semi-" 
tributed the world over, but not in a concentrated state, tions. 



150 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Mineral in- 

gredie: 

slates. 



Gold un- 
combined 
with iron 
sulphur- 



It is most concentrated where the chemical conditions, 
accompanied by certain mechanical conditions, were 
most favorable for concentration and precipitation. 
Precisely as in the ancient river placers it was most 
concentrated where the mechanical conditions were most 
favorable for such concentration or separation from the 
accompanying rock. 

We have here what was originally light mud, impreg- 
nated throughout with iron, gold, silver, besides the 
alumina, magnesia, silica, and lime, which formed the 
principal ingredients. Even where vein formation did 
not occur after the consolidation of the sediment, iron 
pyrites have very generally crystallized out in the slates. 
Such is also the fact in a more limited degree in the 
granites on the western slope of the Sierra. Quartz, 
iron, gold and magnesia especially, being easily soluble 
under the conditions to which they were subjected, 
formed the concentrations seen in the vein material 
and gouges associated with the metamorphosed seam 
belts; (several hundred specimens of which accompany 
this Eeport, and will speak for themselves.*) 

The gold is found precipitated as metallic gold, free 
from combination with any of the above elements. 
Even when entirely inclosed in pyrites, it is granular 
upon disintegration of the latter. It is some times visi- 
ble in undecomposed pyrites, with and without the as- 
sistance of a- magnifying glass. [See instances in the 
tabular exhibit, Tuolumne County.] 

Fourcroy's General System of Chemical Knowledge, 
published in 1804, has the following passage: "Berg- 



* They have been donated to the State by direction of the President 
of the California Water Company, and are on exhibition in the mining 
and geological collection connected with the State Library at Sacra- 
mento. 



GEOLOGY. 151 

maim observes that the gold which is extracted from 
auriferous pyrites by digestion in nitric acid, is in small 
angular grains, which proves that this metal existed in 
the state of simple mixture, and not of composition in 
the pyrites." 
Leading mineralogists of the present day all entertain Manner of 

00 l mi precipita- 

similar views. In arriving at Nature's method of pre- tKm - 
cipitating the gold, we may set it down as conclusive 
then, that the gold precipitates first. But the pre- 
cipitation of iron, sulphuret is almost simultaneous. It 
appears to be the conclusion of the identical chemical 
reaction that precipitates the gold. 

(7.)— PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION, AND "AGGREGATE 
RESULTS." 

Yoltaic electricity is the soul of the earth, and like Eiectromet 

allurgy. 

all other things in nature, dual, or positive and negative 
in its manifestations. The electro-positive and electro- 
negative principle is not only the foundation of all 
chemical action, but it suggests to us the modus operandi 
of the vein chemistry of the Sierra, a matter of the 
greatest importance to those engaged in following the 
deposits of gold under ground. 

The Earth, in the order and plan of Nature, presents Grand ag- 
gregates. 
itself to us in three grand aggregates, (the " elements " 

of Aristotle,) Land, Sea and Air, to which should be 
added, perhaps, a fourth, the Organic world. Each of 
these four great natural aggregates of the chemical ele- 
ments, is found to possess a feature chemically strikingly 
peculiar to it, viz. : land has silica as constituting fifty per 
cent, of all the rocks, or sixty per cent., if the lime- 
stones be excepted; water has hydrogen, the air has 
oxygen, and the organic world has carbon * According 

* Easily memorized by the initial letters in their natural order: 
SHOC 



152 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



B 


hh 


O 
n 


1* 


H 


W 


o 


H 
O 


h3 


S 


< 


W 




w 


JH 


H 



1 

55 

Q 
ft 

O 
HI 
05 

1 

O 

o 


05 

a 

fi 
W 
H 

« 
ft 

<! 
O 

$ 

B 


Or mascu- 
line in the 
o r g a n ic 
world. 

Feminine in 
the organ- 
ic world. 


The active 
principle. 

ihe pas- 
sive prin- 
ciple. 


Hi 

o 

CO 1 

w o 

S H 

O H 
H B 

a p 

O H 
«i 
<! ft 

ft 


i * 

fr GO 


1 I 
© CD 

.a .a 

&H EH 


D 

ii 

IS 
o o 
* S 
gg 
go 
w S 

M 


Called elec- 
tro-posi- 
tive. 

Called elec- 
tro-nega- 
tive. 


Go to the negative 
pole. 

Go to the positive 
pole. 


o 
o 

Hi 

o 
ft 
cs 

Hi 

•« 
o 

a 

o 

5 
ft 

o 

1 

ft 

ft 


Dissolve or change silica, etc. 

Solidify or perpetuate in the 
form of silica chiefly, being 
the agency through which 
new mineral forms are con- 
stantly crystallized out.when- 
ever the electropositive or 
basic elements are brought 
in contact. 


6 

o 
o 

H • 
B W 

o S 

H 

CO 

B 


Change red lit- 
mus paper to 
blue. 

Redden blue 
litmus paper. 


O 

CO 

a 

CO 
Hi 

o 

o 
| 

ft 



3 

J B 
« H 

H W 

* w 


Basic, or alkaline class 
of elements and com- 
pounds in solution : 
Alumina, Potash, So- 
da, Lime, Magnesia, 
Iron, and the metals 
generally. 

Acid class of elements 
or compounds in so- 
lution : 



GEOLOGY. 153 

to their leading ingredients, the earth and air would Alsopaired ' 
have to be considered electro-negative, or as most allied 
to the acid class, (in the table opposite;) the sea, and the 
organic world, as electro-positive, or as most allied to 
the basic class. 

(8.)— THE RESULTS OF CHEMICAL ACTION, AS WITNESSED 
IN CONNECTION WITH THE MOTHER LODE SYSTEM 
OF VEINS. 

Those are " aggregate results" which we encounter in SS^Sis. 
the seam diggings, alongside of the solid quartz veins of 
the mother lode system. 

The one set of veins, the earlier, is acid: the other Acid and 

basic gan- 

basic in its principal constituents. Both contain gold; gue - 
the former is found in sulphurets, the latter more fre- 
quently in the form of free gold, associated with metallic 
oxides, carbonates and hydrous magnesium minerals, 
silicates of the bases mentioned in the table. 

What is the history, then, of the two different solu- Im p regna . 
tions and precipitations of gold ? Simply that the acid belts! seam 
and basic conditions alternated ; that while the former 
endured, both iron and gold were in the fluid condition ; 
and when the latter intervened, they were precipitated. 
They so remained, notwithstanding the fact that the 
accompanying quartz and sulphurets of the companion 
talcose veins and related seam diggings were subse- 
quently decomposed, partially dissolved out, removed, 
and replaced by the hydrous magnesia minerals, the sili- 
cates of the bases which accomplished the metamor- 
phism. This order of events did not in any manner 
interfere with the subsequent infiltration of silicious 
waters, and the formation of other or barren seams that 
are often found in the same neighborhood as the decom- 
posed quartz seams, and kidneys in which the gold is 
found in sheets and pockets. 



154 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

Basic or alkaline waters, in brief, changed, and carried 
quartz. 

Acid waters carried gold, dissolved in sulphate of 
iron, or in the form of chlorides. 

Where the two met, and the acid solutions were 
strongest, they solidified both the quartz and the gold, 
with iron, in the form of sulphurets. 

Where, on the other hand, the basic solutions were 
strongest, there resulted decomposition generally; solution 
of quartz and transformation of everything into hydrous 
silicates of magnesia, accompanied by transformation of 
the sulphurets of iron and copper into carbonates and 
soluble sulphates, which were removed by water, leav- 
ing only the gold and oxides of iron. 

(9.)— MINEKALOGICAL CONTENTS OF VEINS, AND PAEA- 

GENESES. 

The plan. ^ ne niineralogical contents of veins are attributable 

to particular chemical combinations, which can be 
traced. In mining this is called par agenesis* It cor- 
responds to the intermarriages of individuals; while the 
vein systems are tribes, where king and queen rule alter- 
nately; and the grand aggregates of Nature are the four 
nations in which Silica, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon 
are the absolute monarchs, as already explained. 

significant ^ ne ma i n veins on Georgetown Divide are of quartz, 
or decomposed quartz, clay, gangue, etc., as described. 
The cross veins and seams frequently also contain solid 
quartz. 

In many cases, the solutions in circulation could form 
quartz, etc., only to one side of the ore channel ; on 
account of the country rock having been previously 

* Very interesting treatises on the subject have been written by 
Breithaupt and others. 



items. 



GEOLOGY. 155 

impregnated, perhaps, with different precipitating in- 
gredients. 

Further details, showing the peculiar contents of 
vein and seams on Georgetown Divide, and in their 
related vein systems, are given in the Tabular Exhibit, 
under Mining Sub. III. 

(10.)— AGE OP GOLD-BEAKING FOKMATIONS, PEEDICATED 
UPON THE OPJGIN OF GOLD. 

We rind gold and silver in the eastern slope of the Ancient and 

modern. 

Sierra Nevada in comparatively modern volcanic rocks. 

We find gold not only in the "dark age," Silurian 
slates of the Ural, and of Australia, as demonstrated by 
Murchison, but in the "middle age," Jurassic and 
triassic slates of California; and even in the placer 
pyrites of the Pliocene rivers of the Pacific slope. 

The latter occurrence has been repeatedly reported 
in the pyrites that crystallize in carbonized wood found 
in placer mining. We are assured that after a sufficient 
degree of care has been taken to exclude all possible 
mechanical admixture, some of the placer pyrites in 
.Nevada and Sierra counties separated by specific 
gravity in water, are still rich in gold. J. Arthur 
Phillips endorses this view, upon the strength of facts 
observed by him while in California. 

It is hardly necessary to enter into the question so Deduction, 
tenaciously argued by Murchison, and some others since 
1849, of the predominating, ancient or modern, age of 
the principal gold-bearing rocks. Geologists will try 
very hard sometimes to deduce a law, where they have 
found a repetition of what the prospector calls "the 
indications." Such "indications" had been observed 
by Murchison, which seemed to place the gold-bearing 
rocks of all the gold-producing countries known uni- 



156 



GEORGETOWN DItlDfi. 



Murchison 
and the 
elates. 



Applied to 
Sierra Ne- 
vada. 



formly in the form of slates, into the dark ages of geo- 
logical history. 

In the new edition of his "Siluria," Murchison modi- 
fied, however, the views first put forth by him as to the 
distribution of gold in the earth's crust. His more 
recent conclusions are : 

1. That looking to the world at large, the auriferous 
vein stones in the lower silurian rocks contain the 
greatest quantity of gold; 

2. That, where certain igneous eruptions penetrated 
the secondary deposits, the latter having been rendered 
auriferous for a limited distance only beyond the junc- 
tion of the two rocks; 

3. That the general axiom before insisted upon re- 
mains; that all secondary and tertiary deposits (except 
auriferous detritus in the latter), not so especially af- 
fected, never contain gold; 

4. That no unaltered, purely aqueous sediment, 
ever contains gold; or, in other words, that the granites 
and diorites have been the chief gold producers, and 
that auriferous quartz leads in palaeozoic rocks are the 
result of heat and chemical agency. 

But as checkers will range in lines in four different 
ways, so may the truth. Primary and secondary "indi- 
cations," or results, of the truth, must be distinguished. 
The latter are reflected lights, echoes, or caroms of the 
first. 

The law of gold distribution and concentration is as 
broad as that of the distribution and concentration of 
any other mineral. 

Murchison's reasoning concerning the origin of the 
gold deposits of California, would be, that the green- 
stone dykes, with their associated metamorphism, con- 
stitute the immediate cause of the impregnation of gold. 



GEOLOGY. 157 

I have shown that these ''dykes" are attending phe- 
nomena. If metamorphosed in origin (as I believe from 
my own observation), the causes of metamorphism were 
probably no less deep seated than if they had been 
erupted. 

The result, then, so far as the concentration of gold in ^°™n d on 
association with greenstone dykes is concerned, would 
be quite the same; even to the conclusion in which all 
agree, that we must regard the granites as the original 
source of the gold (as of every thing else) ; though not 
in any concentrated form. 

Sedimentary concentration, such as Murchison claims i nS e CO nd- 
peculiarly for the silurian, doubtless took place. But 
it continued with equal effect, as is conclusively shown 
by the facts presented in this chapter, down into the 
Jurassic. It is in the auriferous slate region that the 
great gold veins of California occur, while the granites 
are, as a rule, comparatively barren. To sedimentary 
concentrations, deposited in the carboniferous Trassic 
and Jurassic slates of the western parallels of the Cor- 
dilleran axis, we must ascribe the immediate source 
of the enrichment of the gold veins of California. 



(9.)— AGE OF THE GKEAT CENTKAL VEIN SYSTEM OF 
SLATES. 

Prof. Blake remarks "that the movements which at- Pogt tertiary 
tended the uplift and plication of the Coast mount- 
ains in the Post Tertiary must have affected the whole 
western slope of the Sierra Nevada." He therefore 
deems it probable that the principal impregnations of 
gold in the fissures of the auriferous slates must have 
taken place synchronously with the uplift of the Coast 
range, viz : after the end of the Tertiary. 

The point is not well taken, except to the extent that 



158 



Older than 
Miocene. 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

it may be possible to show w T liat fissures were formed 
then that could not have been formed before. 

The great central vein system of the auriferous slates 
certainly belonged to the period following the uplift of 
the Sierra Nevada immediately on their first consolida- 
tion to a mechanical condition consistent with nature's 
conception of the grand dome. Sufficient evidence that 
gold had been chemically concentrated in veins in this 
region before the Miocene Tertiary, is found in the fact 
of its having been mechanically concentrated to a large 
extent in the ancient rivers, in the form of a re-deposit 
of the metal ; the age of which has been demonstrated 
by paleontological evidence, derived principally from 
the leaves and trees of the period, to have been miocene 
and pliocene tertiary at the latest. 



General 
view. 



SUPEBFICIAL DEPOSITS. 

1 — Ancient and Modern Valleys 

2 — Volcanic Matter. 

3 — Comparison of Ancient and Modern Drainage. 

4 — Constituents of Superficial Deposits. 

(1.)— ANCIENT AND MODERN VALLEYS. 

Topographically and geologically there is a marked 
difference between the Georgetown and Placerville di- 
vides. Standing upon the summit of Grey Eagle Hill, 
or of Kobb's Mountain, a view west and southwest 
shows the former to be irregular in outline — the latter 
a sloping plain, with only an occasional knob of meta- 
morphic slate rising above the general level. 

Geologically the former is uncovered slates, the " bed 
rock" formation of the Sierra Nevada — the latter a con- 
tinuous gravel and lava deposit, covering a hundred 
square miles or more — beginning at the summit, and at 
its western end blending with the flat plain of the un- 



GEOLOGY. 



159 



denuded slates of Placerville Divide, above Mount 
Thompson. 

While Georgetown Divide was a divide of the plio- The country 

° L in the an- 

cene period, Placerville Divide was a valley of the same JJSJa^ 
period. In it were heaped up the gravels of the plio- 
cene river filling period, and upon the top of this poured 
the volcanic outflows of the eruptive period, which 
closed the pliocene, and marked the revolution which 
brought about the new order of things: the present to- 
pographical framework of existing watershed, valley 
and stream. 

From the summits of Georgetown Divide, looking senicgeoi- 

ogy. 

toward the south, the Placerville gravel ranges fall 
prominently into view, and the gravel-pits, exposing 
the bed-rock of the ancient channel in a straight line 
which jumps from hill to hill, and from range to range, 
as if a ruled line had been drawn there in profile — 
present the most striking and interesting objects of 
landscape imaginable. 

(2).— MOLTEN VOLCANIC MATTEE. 

On visiting Placerville itself, and ascending the high Eepetition. 
gravel range referred to, which trends westward just 
south of the town, you find all of the characteristics 
of the ancient river of the Yuba basin — an immense 
deposit of quartz, gravel and rock, covered by a mass 
of volcanic rock. 

So heavy and almost solidly continuous is the trachy- intestined 

** J J eruption. 

tic breccia in the vicinity of the reservoir — so entirely 
free of broken and rounded corners belonging to a 
transported breccia — that this difference at once occurs, 
however : that the lava of Placerville must have reached 
its position in a molten state; part of it entirely un- 
mixed with river water. This character of the lava- 



160 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

flows of the Sierra is repeated and intensified toward 
the south in Calaveras and Stanislaus counties, while 
toward the north on the Yuba, the volcanic matter is 
generally (not always) in the form of volcanic washed 
boulders, in an ashy cement. 
From the The volcanic matter of the Divide was derived from 

summit. 

the summit. In localities in the vicinity of Tell's 
mountain the remnants of genuine molten trachytic 
lava-flows (or dykes ?) exist, which were scraped over 
by the glaciers of the glacial period; it being almost 
certain that the rock is not in place. 

(3).— COMPAKISON OF ANCIENT AND MODERN DRAINAGE. 

To the north of Georgetown Divide was another val- 
ley, now marked by the gravels of Forrest Hill and Iowa 
Hill Divide. 

A comparison of the drainage of the Pliocene with 
that of the Post-Pliocene and recent periods, can be 
made from the following diagram, where the ancient 
stream is marked by a dotted line and the present one 
by a continuous line. The dark shading represents 
canon ; the light, plateait. 

The Middle Fork of the American, it will be seen, 
ran near its present route, but in the main a little fur- 
ther north; the South Fork was located further south 
than the present South Fork of the American. 

The ancient side canons are seen to exist in a manner 
corresponding with the canons of Pilot Creek, Otter 
Creek, Canon Creek, etc. 



GEOLOGY. 161 

(4.)— CONSTITUENTS OF SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 

The material of the gravel deposits consists of : 

1. Gravel from the metamorphic slates, chiefly diorites 
and silicous schists. 

2. Washed boulders of volcanic rock; trachytic por- 
phyry, or basalt, some of which is known as black lava. 
In lava capped hills of the mining region, the colors 
are generally owing to the various degrees of oxydation 
of the protoxyds and magnetic oxyds of iron contained 
in these lavas. In other cases the volcanic rock is from 
an ashy or leaden color to iron gray. The trachytic 
porphyry found in the form of volcanic boulders is 
often considerably lighter, and of a faint reddish tint. 

3. Ancient river sandstones consisting: 

(a.) Of sandstones of granitic origin. At Yankee 
Jim's, on the authority of Prof. Blake, several layers 
of placer deposit consist of fine granitic sand. On the 
authority also of Dr. Willey and Henry G. Hanks, 
there is in the deep placer mines, at Michigan Bluffs, 
a seam deposit formed of the component parts of 
granite. This is stained yellow and red with oxyd of 
iron. In portions of the placer beds, the sand is 
colored black by infilterated oxyd of manganese, looking 
at a little distance like black sand or lignite. 

(b.) Sandstone of volcanic origin, known as white 
lava. The "white lava" is a fine gritty consolidation 
of volcanic sand and ash. It makes a tolerable build- 
ing stone, being easily worked. It is used for this pur- 
pose at Diamond and Shingle Springs ; is whiter and 
less compact than the porphyritic rock quarried at 
Green Valley, near Bridgeport, Solano County, which 
is said to harden on weathering. Some of the best 
11 



162 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



jag nucien 



Gravel cov 
ercd by vol 
cariie out- 
flo 



\SKKm m 



mm 




Fig. 32.— DIAG-RAM OF THE PLIOCENE NORTH, MIDDLE AND 
SOUTH FORKS OF THE AMERICAN RIVER, 



GEOLOGY. 



163 



SHOWING THE RELATIONS TO AND 
SCALE, 6 

K. D.— Bed Dog. 

Y. B.— You Bet. 

L. Y.— Little York. 

G. B.— Gold Bun. 

S. B.— Shady Bun. 

N. E. M.— N. England Mills. 

C. G. — Copper Gap. 

W. H.— Wisconsin Hill. 

D. — Damascus. 

I. H. — Independence Hill. 

B.— Bath. 

F. H.— Forest Hill. 

Y. J. — Yankee Jim's. 

B. B 



VARIATIONS FROM THE PRESENT STREAMS. 
MILES TO 1 INCH. 

* T. V.— Todd's Valley. 

Vol. — Volcanoeville. 

B. H.— Bottle Hill. 

S. D. D. — Spanish Dry Diggings. 

Gk. — Greenwood. 

P.— Pilot Hill, (town of Centerville) 

J. — Johnston. 

K. Kelsey's. 

G. E. H.— Grey Eagle Hill. 

C. — Coloma. 

G. H.— Gold Hill. 

D. S. — Diamond Springs. 

N. — Newtown. 
. — Bailroad, 



buildings at Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County, are 
likewise constructed of volcanic material. 

4. Tlie soil of the country, consisting of decomposed 
slates to a depth of five or ten feet. It is from cherry 
red to brown, yellow, or nearly white, depending upon 
the amount of iron in different localities. 



164 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Mining* 



V.-WATER, AND ITS APPLICATION. 

Demand. Measurement — Estimation of Wa- 
Supply. tee Flowing in Steeams. 

Limits of Stoeage Supply : Wateb Lost by Evapoeation. 

1. Pilot Creek System. Application of Watee to Pbo- 

2. Little South Fork. ductive Industeies. 

3. Rubicon. Foe City Supply. 

Ditches. Application to Manufactuees. 



(1.)— THE DEMAND 

For water, of course, regulates the extent of all works 
and operations for supply. From the nature of the 
seasons the principal demand occurs in summer; al- 
though for mining purposes the desideratum of regu- 
larity, as well as quantity of supply, throws almost the 
entire water market of the divide the year round into 
the hands of the California Water Company, 
water saief. The extent of the present demand for mining and 
agriculture is not fully represented by the actual water 
sales as taken from the books of the Water Company, 
kept at Georgetown, the demand having exceeded the 
supply. Owing to continuous construction since the 
purchase of the property, no fair average of sales can 
be made from the Secretary's books. 

The demand for water, both in mining and agricul- 
ture, depends fundamentally upon the degree of activ- 
ity or general prosperity in those interests peculiar to 
the Divide, concerning the fluctuations of which I have 
enlarged under VIII. These fluctuations, as shown, 
are owing to a large extent to conditions independent 
of the real resources of the country. The degree of 
permanence of demand is based then upon the perma- 
nent or substantial character of these resources, in 



Perma 
nency. 



WATER. 



165 



agriculture and mining. The question whether these 
resources of the divide are such as to warrant any 
expectation of increased demand, with the ability on 
the part of the consumers to pay, is the question to be 
particularly considered under the heads of "Mining" 
and " Agriculture," respectively regarded as permanent 
resources, in accordance with the facts presented in 
this report. 

(2.)— THE SUPPLY. 
(a) In Winter — The present limits of supply are, in capacity of 

# v y r . ditches. 

winter, the full capacity of the several ditches, as given 
below under section four. 

For winter supply, the local sources from various 
tributaries, from Dutch Creek, Kock Creek and Canon 
Creek — in short, every principal stream of the divide — 
are ample to fill all the ditches owned by the company 
at *once, and in general for six months in the year. 
(See "BainfaH" and "Physical Geography.") 

(6) During the Summer. — In summer, the limit of Regions of 
supply is the minimum drainage of the season, in con- supply. 
nection with the catchment at the sources of supply: 
(a) Pilot Creek and Pilot Creek reservoir; (b) Little 
South Fork and Loon Lake reservoir; (c) Eubicon 
Kiver and the Glacial Lakes, used as reservoirs. 

Eesults of measurements are given below, showing 
the storage capacity at your disposal, in various lakes 
and reservoirs. 

The Loon Lake reservoir waters, in addition to those Dry season. 
of the Pilot Creek reservoir, would be drawn upon 
from June 15th to November 15th — five months, or 150 
days. Water is at its lowest stage about September 
20th; it runs quite low for about three months. 

There is required for present wants, beyond the sup- 



166 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



ply which was had during the past summer, at least one 
thousand inches for 150 days. 



Correct pol- 
icy. 



Melting 
snows. 



Glacial 

reservoirs. 



(3.)— LIMITS OF STOEAGE SUPPLY. 

The wisdom of continuing your system into Loon 
Lake, or Little South Fork basin, and Eubicon basin, 
is founded upon bed-rock principle. The provision of 
nature here discovered by explorers placing the Cali- 
fornia Water Company in possession of important geo- 
graphical advantages for the supply of summer water, 
in quantities not merely to answer for the needs of 
Georgetown Divide, but the valley and the cities of the 
valley, is barely indicated under the Physical Geogra- 
phy of the Divide. 

Eubicon basin, with its perpetual snows, is one grand 
store-house of the aqueous element, which changes into 
self-transportable fluid only in the dry season, when it 
is wanted. 

Eurming lengthwise — northwest and southeast — in 
the heart of the Sierras, for a distance of 15 or 20 
miles, the Eubicon Eiver basin holds several hundred 
square miles of snow, 10 to 30 feet deep ; the melting 
of which begins in April or May in the bottom of the 
valleys, and recedes to higher and higher altitudes as 
the wants of the dry season require it. Until, in the 
latest and dryest months, there is still an unexhausted 
supply held over, into the succeeding year. 

The entire basin of the Eubicon, as well as that of 
the Little South Fork is glaciated, and dotted with in- 
numerable lakes of glacial origin. Some of these are of 
great extent, and very deep. Enclosed within lateral 
and terminal moraines, consisting of a narrow rim of 
loose material easily dug, these lakes are natural dams 
or reservoirs capable of standing an enormous pressure, 



WATER. 



167 



and in most cases of being raised by a slight artificial 
reconstruction of the eroded outlet, to a reservoir ca- 
pacity greatly increased above their present natural 
capacity. 

Here are found, then, the elements of a water sup- Business 

elements. 

ply in quantity worthy of a water company of the 
broadest foundations and the most extensive operations 
in prospective. Situated opposite the most important 
portion of the valley, in a geographical point of view, 
and the capital of the State, this wealth in water may 
be applied successfully, and under good management 
immediately, to widely varied industries, all of which 
are assured, and must be as permanent as population 
and prosperity in the State. 

Yon Schmidt goes further, and proposes to tunnel LakeTahoe. 
the Sierra, besides digging fifty miles of ditch, in order 
to attain what you already possess — a completed ditch 
from the snowy store-house of the high Sierra to the 
valley, and a supply of water more abundant during the 
dry season than the largest ditches can convey. 

The magnificent reservoir of Lake Tahoe cannot be Notsuperior 
taken advantage of by Yon Schmidt's scheme to any 
greater extent than can the summer flow of the Rubi- 
con River, in connection with the numerous reservoirs 
of the Little South Fork and Rubicon basin, by the 
California Water Company. 

Of the methods of gaining the full advantage of the Policy, 
situation and wealth of Rubicon basin, in connection 
with your Little South Fork system, the proper policy 
to pursue is considered under Subdivision VIII. 

To meet present wants, and for present purposes in p reS ent and 
general, there is no immediate necessity for the con- 
struction of the connecting line to the Rubicon. The 
demand will undoubtedly appear, however, as soon as 



168 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

water can be had; and to the fullest extent of the capac- 
ity of the main conducting channel; for which see Lit- 
tle South Fork Ditch and Pilot Creek Ditch. 

THE KESERVOIE CAPACITY REQUISITE 

Must correspond, in some degree, with the rates of 
rainfall and consumption. 
how to cai- The capacity of the reservoir is the difference between 

eulate. L J 

the natural level and the raised level. The amount of 
this difference should equal a capacity of impounding 
sufficient to provide a certain fixed constant supply ; the 
same to be maintained during the longest period of 
drouth. 

(1.)— PILOT CREEK AND PILOT CREEK RESERVOIR. 

The actual present sources for summer supply are 
limited to Pilot Creek basin and Pilot Creek reservoir, 
The new ditch in process of construction, and nearly 
completed, is intended to throw into the latter the sum- 
mer waters of the Little South Fork basin, including 
Gurley Creek and Loon Lake reservoirs. 

The North Fork of the Middle Fork contains, accord- 
ing to records in the Water Company's office, at the 
junction nearly double the amount of water of the South 
Fork. The latter, on June 24th, 1871, was about fifty 
feet wide, six feet deep, and running at the rate of four 
to five miles an hour; approximately 43,200 miners' 
inches. 

(2.)— THE LITTLE SOUTH FORK 

Itself, and Gurley Creek, were nearly dry when I saw 

them in August, 1873; and Loon Lake did not discharge 

any surplus water for two or three months. From 

evaporation (chiefly), Loon Lake receded sixteen inches. 

[The Little South Fork, at the trail crossing, was, on 



LITTLE SOUTH FORK DITCH. 

from Little South Fork to Pilot CreeTc 








ROBBS MOUNTAIN 



tutCity^ ^' 



-\muc 



LITTLE SOUTH FORK DITCH, 
from Little South Fork to Pilot Creek. 







\*€> 



40 



sH. 



W \l""/^Co"ip 



l>i ^UaatyKoctd 



/fOBBS MOUHf AIN 






WATER. 169 

June 24th, 1871, reported to be ten feet wide, two and 
a half feet deep, and running at the rate of three miles 
an hour.] 

The Little South Fork at its outlet was estimated as 
flowing 4,000 miners' inches on June 25th, 1871. 

Gurley Creek, the outlet of Loon Lake, empties into 
the Little South Fork about five miles above its junc- 
tion with the Middle Fork. 

Had the Little South Fork and Gurley Creek ditch 
been completed in August, the waters stored in Loon 
Lake — an estimated capacity of 10,000 inches constant 
flow — would have been drawn upon at this juncture, 
and the ditches might have been kept full for at least 
100 days. 

^A temporary dam, nine feet high, was constructed at 
the outlet of Loon Lake, as represented on the map, to 
see if any of the water of Loon Lake, when dammed, 
would seep away. The lake remained full all summer. 
Loon Lake so dammed connects with Pleasant Lake, 
making both together about three miles in length, and 
half a mile in width. 

Mr. Bradley proposes to draw off the water from the 
surface of the lake when filled twelve feet above the 
natural level, to a level twenty feet lower, by tapping the 
lake by means of a tunnel eight feet below the natural 
level. He estimates that he can supply in this way a 
flow of 5,000 inches during the summer and fall months. 

kThe summer supplies which may be drawn from 
ittle South Fork basin are taken from measurements 
ade by direction of the Company, as follows : 
The Little South Fork is the outlet for ten small 
lakes, embracing three and a half millions square feet 
of surface, which can be increased one third by inex- 



170 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

gorges. The flow from them would be from 3,000 to 
21,000 miners' inches. 

Loon Lake System alone will flow, according to calcu- 
lation 10,000 inches during the dry season. It receives 
its waters from the precipitation embraced in a basin 
about eight miles in diameter. Loon Lake is one half 
by one quarter of a mile in dimensions, and 29J feet 
average depth. A dam 20 feet high and 236 feet long 
would double the surface area. Six small lakes tribu- 
tary to Loon Lake can also be doubled in surface area 
and capacity. 

Loon Lake has a present surface of 104,688,000 square 
feet, which can be more than doubled by a dam 20 feet 
high and 236 feet long. To this lake belongs a system 
of natural reservoirs, six in number, each of which caji 
be raised by dams so as to double the present capacity, 
viz: (as numbered on Eeservoir Plots upon tracing. cloth 
in the office of the Company.) 

(1.) Measures one fourth by one eighth of a mile in 
dimensions; having 900,000 square feet of surface. To 
double this capacity a dam 20 feet high and 200 feet 
long can be constructed. 

(2.) Horse Shoe Lake, one eighth by one tenth of a 
mile in dimensions ; having 400,000 square feet of sur- 
face. A dam 10 feet high and 175 feet long will double 
the capacity. 

(3.) A lake containing 800,000 square feet of surface. 
By means of a cut 5 feet deep and 200 feet long, and a 
dam 10 feet high and 250 feet long, the capacity may be 
doubled. 

(4.) Pleasant Lake. The water of Pleasant Lake 
flows into the outlet of Loon Lake about 2,600 feet be- 
low its emergence from the lake. Pleasant Lake is 75 
feet above Loon Lake. It contains one-quarter of a 



Details of 

PILOT CREEK DITCH 

fromHeadjOt Reservoir, down to the Ti/n/ir/ 



WATER. 171 

million square feet of surface. A dam 15 feet high and 
300 feet long ; also a cut two feet below its present sur- 
face and 300 feet long, are practicable. The flow in 
June 1871 was 250 miner's inches. 

(5.) A lake having one quarter of a million square 
feet of surface. It can be tapped by a tunnel 200 feet 
long so as to drain the lake 25 feet below its present 
surface, and furnish 2,650,000 cubic feet of water; also 
dammed 20 feet higher by a dam not exceeding 150 feet 
in length. Half of its water runs from a marshy plain 
below its outlet to Pleasant Lake; the other half down 
Gurley Creek, joining it two or three miles below Loon 
Lake. 

(6.) A lake having 200,000 square feet of surface. A 
dam 20 feet high and 200 feet long will double its capa- 
city. 

At the head of the Little South Fork system, is lake 
"F," as designated, containing about 45 acres, and 
having several adjacent reservoirs. Also lake "A," 
containing 30 acres, which can be dammed by a struct- 
ure 10 feet high and 150 feet long, so as to cover 40 
acres. It has four adjacent lakes, all capable of being 
dammed. 

(3.)— EUBICON EIVEE AND LAKES TBIBUTAKY THEEETO. 

This source of supply was had in view in 1871, in 
ordering a survey for a line of ditch to throw the waters 
of the Rubicon into Gurley Creek, at a point connect- 
ing with the Little South Fork and Gurley Creek 
systems. The water supply from this source, by tak- 
ing advantage of the storage of the natural reservoirs, is 
estimated as follows : 

The Rubicon System of streams and reservoir lakes 
furnishes in the dry season 12,000 miner's inches. The 



172 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

principal lakes are C. D. and E., as designated, — 
Spider Lake, Lower Lake, and Potter's Lake, — each 
connecting with from one to ten smaller lakes. 

Little Eubicon. — The Little Enbicon, measured in 
June, 1871, at a point two miles below these lakes, 
2,336 miners' inches. 

Potter's Lake and Lower Lake are on the Little En- 
bicon, abont three miles south of its junction with the 
main Eubicon, and about seven miles below its source 
in the snowy peaks of Tell's Mountain range. 

Spider Lake, (C.) contains 15,000,000 square feet of 
surface, and is very deep. A dam, 20 feet high, by 320 
feet long, would double its capacity. It can also be 
lowered by tapping it 40 feet below its present surface, 
requiring a tunnel 800 feet long. The raising and tap- 
ping together would afford a draught of 60 feet, giving 
1,000,000,000 cubic feet of water. The auxiliary 
reservoirs are : 

1. A small lake, one third of a mile long by 400 feet 
wide, containing 350, 000 square feet of surface, suscepti- 
ble of being increased one third by a dam across the 
outlet 61 feet high by 300 feet long. 

2. A small lake, half the size of the last named, sit- 
uated one fourth of a mile southwest from it; besides 
several other small lakes. 

Swan, or Lower Lake, (D.) has over 2,000,000 square 
feet of surface. The Little Eubicon flows through it, 
entering it at its southeastern extremity, and leaving it 
at its northwestern extremity. It has two separate out- 
lets, which can be dammed by bulkheads, each 20 feet 
high by 275 feet long, and tapped by an open cut three 
feet deep and 60 feet long. The auxiliary reservoirs are : 

1. A small rock-bound lake, lying due east of the out- 
let of Swan Lake, which can be directed into the latter 



Details of 

MAIN DITCH 

from Twuwl to Reservoir ait Georgetown 



as paced by &.B. Campbell. 




Ttochy/8: Bushy 

Hornhland 'RocJc 
CementHill j^Fhir/ieSZ-ft. 

r-CemenA \* SFUune+Ote. 



l 9 . 

jResarvon 



Orchard 
Old Minuiq Claim. 



ement 
Quart zjLed.qe.Har'knesji Fence 



/ crossing 
y'Kelsey Ditch 



/ 1 

to 

/ VnlcanviLle Mood 

Works 
Orchards House /t&JInme on oldlhtcli 

o y „ ,. , ... f\ FaUsion 



MouOl of Hock O-eekDiLeh 




■n vi to Oyjivn under old FUiri lz, along Co/inn 



'OldRoad to TiptnnHiU orSLeuis 
eadof CaJioiz 



Head- of tyuuyn 

Tunnel Hill 



FoJJsofiooft 

Jfeaoi of Canon 



^leadofCanort Ct 



SCALE \- 



DetaUs of 

MAIN DITCH 

from Tunnel to Reservoir at Georgetown 



as paced by G.B Campbell. 



K,„kyU,n,tlhll 



orzl/Hor*dr>J)itch 



// 



- \hnuh nflinrl, < h><],lu/rh 



.Water tolls 12 ftdown vito Casivr/ anzbr old Flilnie, alo/y Carl 

It )/,///. '..'■./' ' T, r h>i:Hlll or \UULS 







HOTCH/r/SS 



Xocky/dlXiishy 

ManJXack 

CemeniMU friiuitc24-ft. 
Hocks , 



QuartjXedqeJhrkm 



-,'■/","■ 't'l'r.l. 



WATER. 173 

above its outlet by a small ditch. This reservoir can 
be doubled in capacity, by means of a dam 20 feet 
high and 150 feet long, which would give the reservoir 
400,000 square feet surface. 

2. A small lake, one mile south of Swan Lake, and 
200 feet higher. It has a surface of 200,000 square feet. 

Potter' 8 j or Big Blue Lake. — This is one mile long by 
five eighths of a mile wide, and is situated one fourth of 
a mile above Swan Lake, and 120 feet higher. It has a 
surface of 11,000,000 square feet, and is very deep. 

A large lake above, discharges its surface waters into 
it through the Little Eubicon. A dam of an average 
height of 11 feet by 436 feet long, would raise the lake 
20 feet, and a cut or tunnel, 600 feet long, would tap it 
30 feet below its present surface. Three or four con- 
necting lakes, embracing about 500,000 square feet of 
surface, are tributary to Potter's Lake. 

The Big Eubicon flowed, in June, 1871, from 4,000 to 
5,000 inches. It runs nearly parallel with the Little 
Eubicon for about three miles. It was in August 20 feet 
in width, three feet in depth, and flowed at the rate of 
two miles per hour, giving 4,320 miners' inches. 

The total area of the reservoirs and lakes above is 
143,202,600 square feet, allowing the average depth to 
be ten feet. 

The total number of cubic feet in all the lakes would 
be 1,432,126,000, or 10,000 miners' inches, for 440 days; 
or 20,000 miners' inches for 220 days. 

4.— DITCHES. 

OKIGIN, CHAKACTER AND EXTENT OF THE DITCH SYSTEM. 

Every portion of the Divide is covered by ditches of the Absorption. 
California Water Company. Besides the main ditches 
for summer supply, the old S e ditch and the El Dorado 



174 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Decadence 
and recov- 
ery. 



Want of 
water. 



.ditch leading up into the high Sierra, there is a large 
number of distributing ditches, connected with numer- 
ous subordinate ranch ditches, which were constructed 
to take advantage of local streams for mining purposes; 
yet which may all be considered, and are equally useful 
as agricultural ditches in the summer season. The 
original survey, construction, and even the absorption 
of all these ditches, was the work of many persons, the 
predecessors of the California Water Company. 

In gaining possession of so extensive a system of 
water rights, ditches and reservoirs, the sum of all that 
the surface mining of the early period was able to de- 
velop, in the way of permanent improvements on the 
Divide, the California Water Company has reaped all 
the advantages that could be derived from purchasing 
them during a period of decadence, having obtained 
these properties at a fraction of what they originally 
cost. Yet the circumstances, it is believed, warrant 
the conviction that through good management and a 
fair discrimination, the resources of the Divide will very 
speedily prove themselves worthy of the undertaking ; 
and the values of these properties will shortly recover to 
their original standard; in the meantime maintaining 
the character, from a financial standpoint, of a very 
fair, permanent and promising field of investment. 

Many of these ditches are but small, and no longer 
adapted primarily to the uses for which they were con- 
structed — surface mining — and have not yet been turned 
to account for any other purpose. Many of them have 
been allowed to go to decay, being overgrown with 
chemisal, and broken through at most of the ravine 
crossings by winter brooks; the flumes being frequently 
rotted to the ground. But as distributing ditches for 
agricultural purposes in the dry season, they can be 



TfieHorn" 

along Flume atJBluff 




Gorman's 


Flume £ 




□ 


onSLuie \ls • ' »v. 




?/SluZ*> 




**/$ / mi to 




71 


'haler 



DITCH 

head 



MAGV. 




OH If of 

EL DOnaDO DITCH 

from tht'jf^ lts head 





WATER. 



175 



brought into use, at a comparatively small expense, the 
moment that there is ivater enough at your command to 
warrant the development of a market in this direction. 
Advantages of combining all these Ditches under oneexecu- 

. . tive field. 

one General System. — You are not in the position up- 
on getting an abundant summer supply from the high 
Sierra — after you have been expending large sums on 
construction — of having to wait many years for the com- 
pletion of these ramifications for distribution, which are 
so necessary to turn the water when you have it, into 
cash. You have every portion of the Divide at your 
command. The resources of the country have been 
well canvassed ; and there is only required of you the 
practical business talent, along with the necessary at- 
tention to details, to choose the most promising locali- 
ties, and secure the application of water wherever any- 
thing exists, in either of the three kingdoms of nature, 
that can be made to blossom into prosperity. 

TJie system of ditches, as succeeding in their order the ciassifica. 

T T ti011 ° f 

processes of catchment, storage, conduction and clistri- ditches. 
bution, embraces: (1.) main ditches for conduction from 
the region of supply or storage to the region of applica- 
tion or market; (2.) tributary and distributing ditches. 

In this light, your list of ditches, with connecting 
branches, presents itself to the eye as in the accompa- 
nying table ; those not owned by the California Water 
Company being designated by a star. 

In the ditch maps accompanying this description the 
cross lines indicate flumes. 

(I.)— EAST OF GEORGETOWN. 

(a)— PILOT CREEK SECTION. 

The Main Ditch. — The size of the old Pilot Creek 
Ditch, from its upper end, at the Pilot Creek Reservoir, 



176 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 

down to Mutton Canon, is three and a half feet on top, 
two and a half feet at the bottom, and two feet deep. 
Water is constantly running in it. It is a well-con- 
structed ditch, and in good condition. From its head 
to Ballard's Canon, a distance of about six miles, it is 
covered with rails. It was covered formerly for some 
distance farther down, but the covering was taken off, 
and put on the new Pilot Creek Ditch. A portion of it 
was burned up by forest fires. 

The size between the mouth of Mutton Canon and 
Georgetown is six and a half feet on top, four feet at 
the bottom, and three feet deep. On August 15th, 
1873, there were running in this, at the flume, four and 
a half feet by six inches of water. It has been dry 
only once since its construction; namely, in 1871. 
This portion is also well constructed, and in first-rate 
condition ; is always carrying water. It was enlarged 
by this company. Before the enlargement, it was 
calculated to run 900 inches; it now runs from 1,800 to 
2,000. 

The New Pilot Cheek Ditch takes the water out of 
Pilot Creek, two miles below the Pilot Creek Keservoir, 
and half a mile below Forney's. The size from its 
source to Mutton Canon is three and a half feet on top, 
two and a half feet at the bottom, and two and a half 
feet deep. The object in constructing this ditch, tak- 
ing the water out of Pilot Creek below the reservoir, 
was to get the leakage from the reservoir, and to carry 
a greater amount of water down the divide than the old 
Pilot Creek Ditch could carry, as far as Mutton Canon. 
From that point, towards the west, the old Pilot Creek 
Ditch was enlarged, as stated, in order to carry the 
waters of both ditches. 



:\v 







- 


*S ®FlumeonSla-k> 






% 








*vj J% ^ 






y| 
















fa^rt^ 



v^zv^* 5 




G*l«* 



WATER. 
(6.)— BRANCH DITCHES -PILOT CREEK SECTION. 

1 . Branch of Silver Creek Ditch takes the water from 
Onion or Silver Creek to Pilot Creek, emptying into Pilot 
Creek Beservoir. Size, two feet on top, sixteen inches 
at the bottom, and sixteen inches deep. Water is 
constantly running in it. On August 15th, 1873, there 
were ten inches. 

2. El Dorado Ditch. — This ditch takes the water 
out of Pilot Creek, several miles below Forney's, and 
follows the left bank of Pilot Creek to its junction with 
the Middle Fork; thence attains Mount Gregory Divide, 
and feeding the Yolcanoville Ditch, continues toward 
Works' Eanch; following from that point within a few 
yards of the main Pilot Creek Ditch, the only accessible 
route along the divide to Georgetown. Below its junc- 
tion, with the main ditch, the size of the El Dorado 
Ditch is three and a half feet on top, two feet at the 
bottom, and three feet deep. On August 15th, 1873, 
there was water running in it five or six inches deep. 
Above its junction, with the main ditch, the size is 
thirty inches on top, eighteen inches at the bottom, 
and twenty inches deep. It runs 350 inches or more, 
the year round. Below Hotchkiss Hill, the El Dorado 
Ditch has been enlarged to six feet on top, three and a 
half feet at the bottom, and three feet deep to George- 
town. 

3. The Volcanoville Ditch is a branch of the El 
Dorado ditch, taking the water out of the latter at the 
.Richardson ranch, several miles southeast of Mount 
Gregory, and carrying it through the village of Mount 
Gregory, down the Yolcanoville Divide. Size, two feet 
on top, 16 inches at the bottom, and 18 inches deep. 
It was running water all summer during my stay on the 



177 



178 GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 

divide, as far as Mount Gregory. This ditch is not in 
good condition, at the lower end being much over- 
grown with brush. The flumes and culverts are all in 
bad condition. 

4. Bottle Hill Ditch. — Bottle Hill ditch commences 
at a point on the main Pilot Creek ditch, just below an 
old orchard, noted on the ditch plot, and runs down on 
the Bald Hill Divide, past Darling's ranch, to Bottle 
Hill. Size, three feet on top, two feet at the bottom, 
and eighteen inches deep. It is dry; has not had any 
water in it since 1869. 

5. Jones' Hill Ditch runs from Bottle Hill to Jones' 
Hill, being a continuation of the Bottle' Hill ditch, 
along the same divide, to its terminus. It has been 
dry for several years. Size, 2J feet on top, 18 inches 
at the bottom, and 16 inches deep. 

6. Schlein Kock Ceeek Ditch, purchased with the 
Schlein diggings in 1873, runs from the head of Bock 
Creek, a short distance above the road from Works to 
Tunnel Hill, to Schlein's Diggings, at the southeast 
end of Tipton Hill. Size, about 18 inches wide and 
12 inches deep. 

7. Clippee Canon and New Yoek Hill Ditch, runs 
from Clipper Canon to New York Hill. Size, two feet 
on top, 16 inches at the bottom, and 16 inches deep- 
It carries 140 inches of water. 

8. The Small New Yoek Hill Ditch commences 
at a point on the main Pilot Creek ditch at its most 
northerly trend around Hotchkiss Hill, being the head 
of New York Hill spur, and runs to New York Hill, 
overlooking Canon Creek. Size, 15 inches on top, 10 
inches at the bottom, and 10 inches deep. 

9. The Blaisdel Hill Ditch commences at the flume 



Volcawrtle 



Ross' *£)Claim~ 



EndofJDltch 
Q— — 

FowlofKill 



Ties er voir 



\ 



to 
BaldMt. 



to 
Grizzly Flat 



Main Ride? '€ 




SCAL£^ 



Details of 

WANOV/LLE DITCH, 

t El Dorado Ddcfc to tJie End. 

as paced byWtf.Vauc/hn . ■ 



se 
Curdy s 



i-Jleseri/oi?* 




G£rrue.n.t Soil 



Junction. vtnthtflDoradoDUch 




Details of 

WICANOVILLE DITCH, 

(romElDorarf-O Ditch to the End. 



Junction wtJ> filDnradoDittli 



WATER. 179 

near Mountain Tim's shebang, on the road between 
Georgetown and Hotchkiss Hill, and runs to the Blais- 
dell diggings. Size, two feet on top, eighteen inches 
at the bottom, and sixteen inches deep. It carries 300 
inches of water ; was dry in August, 1873, during my 
visit, but ran water last winter. 

10. Eock Creek Ditch is a tributary to the main 
ditch, flowing into it between Tunnel Hill and Work's 
ranch. It starts out of Eock Creek near its source. 
The water in Eock Creek at this point on August 4th, 
1873, was 30 inches. Size, three feet on top, two feet 
at the bottom, and eighteen inches deep. For one and a 
half miles at the upper end it was running 15 inches of 
water on the day mentioned; at the lower it was dry. 

11. Fair Play Ditch commences 250 paces above the 
" Chinese Camp," on the El Dorado ditch, on the ridge 
between Canon Creek and Bear Creek, and runs along 
the divide between Bear Creek and Eock Canon, to 
Cook's Eanch and Fair Play. Capacity, 150 inches. 
Its waters are tributary to Travers' Creek. Length, 
seven miles. The ditch is in good condition. 

12. Bear Creek Ditch starts from Bear Creek, near 
Grey Eagle Hill, and runs to Gold Hill. Size, 20 inches 
on top, 14 inches at the bottom, and 16 inches deep. It 
is in a bad condition. Water has not been running in it 
for some time. A portion of it, near its head, was 
used last winter. 

(c.)— LITTLE SOUTH FORK SECTION. 

The Little South Fork Ditch, in process of con- 
struction, takes the water from Loon Lake reservoir, via 
Gurley Creek, across Little South Fork, and along its 
left bank to its junction with the main Middle Fork of 
the American, and through a tunnel turns it into the 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

head of Pilot Creek Basin, at Frazer's Camp. Size, 
about six feet on top, four feet at the bottom, and three 
deep. 

(d.)— RUBICON SECTION. 

A ditch survey has been made from the Kubicon 
Biver, a mile or two below the crossing of the trail to 
Lake Tahoe, along the left bank of the Bubicon or 
Middle Fork, to Gurley Creek, in the basin of the Lit- 
tle South Fork, a distance of about 19 miles. Any ditch 
along this route would be very difficult to construct, and 
costly. It is believed, however, that a shorter and 
easier route can be found. 

From a point on the Tahoe trail, near Duck Lakes, a 
ditch or flume could be constructed, nine or ten miles in 
length, to the Bubicon, at a point about six miles above 
the Bubicon crossing of the trail to Tahoe, where as 
much water was observed to run in the bed of the Bu- 
bicon at midsummer, as at the initial point of the sur- 
vey mentioned. This ditch or flume would empty the . 
waters of the Bubicon into Loon Lake Beservoir. 

II.— WEST OF GEOBGETOWN. 

(a.)— GEORGETOWN, GREENWOOD, AND KELSEY SECTIONS. 
The Main Ditch continues from the big reservoir at 
Georgetown, to Greenwood, crossing Greenwood Canon 
by means of a pipe a mile in length, bearing 300 feet of 
pressure. Size of ditch, five feet on top, three feet at 
the bottom, and twenty inches deep. 

BRANCH DITCHES IN THE GEORGETOWN-GREENWOOD 
SECTION. 

1. Mamaluke Hill Ditch begins at a point on the 
main ditch, near the big reservoir, where the main ditch 
crosses the Georgetown and Hotchkiss Hill road. Size, 



WATER. 

two feet on top, sixteen inches at the bottom, and six- 
teen inches deep. It is in good condition; was running 
water at the time of my visit, August 16th, 1873. 

2. Georgia Slide Ditch commences at a point on 
the Mamaluke Hill Ditch, 400 feet east-northeast of 
Baldwin's corral, and runs to Georgia Slide on Cahon 
Creek, Size two and a half feet on top eighteen inches 
at the bottom, and eighteen inches deep. It is in good 
condition, and is constantly running water. 

3. Kelsey's Ditch runs from Georgetown to Kelsey 
Beservoir. Size, 30 inches on top, 18 inches at the bot- 
tom, and 18 inches deep. Forty inches of water were 
running in this part of the way — for six miles. It is in 
good condition all the way through. The ditch was 
originally very easily constructed, in good ground. 

4. Bock Canon Ditch takes the water out of Bock 
Canon, and joins Kelsey's Ditch at the Falls. Size, 
thirty inches on top, eighteen inches at the bottom, and 
eighteen inches depth. There has not been any water 
in it for a long time, and it is now one half filled up 
with sediment from local washes. 

5. Sailor Flat Branch of Kelsey's Ditch and 
Bock Canon Ditch starts at Mocks, and runs to Sailor 
Flat. 

6. The Spanish Flat Ditch is another branch of 
the Kelsey and Bock Canon Ditch, leaving it at Amer- 
ican Flat, and running on the east side of the divide, 
above American Flat, to Spanish Flat, a distance of 
about three miles by the ditch. 

7. The Crane's Gulch, or Upper Johntown Ditch, 
commences at a point on the main ditch, on the divide 
between Georgetown and Greenwood, known as Billy, 
Earris' Cabin, and runs along the east side of the ridge, 



181 



182 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

between Empire and Manhattan Canons to Crane's 
Gulch, the Woodside Mine, Hart Mine, and the Castile 
Mine. Size, two feet on top, sixteen inches at the bot- 
tom, and eighteen inches depth. It is in good condi- 
tion, and running water all the time. 

8. Spanish Dry Diggings Ditch runs from the main 
Georgetown Greenwood Ditch, at a point a quarter of 
a mile south of Davis' Reservoir to Spanish Dry Dig- 
gings. This has been delivering water constantly to 
the companies owning claims at the Spanish Dry Dig- 
gings; but a short time prior to August 9th, the date of 
my visit, it ran dry from the general scarcity of water. 
Size, two feet on top, eighteen inches at the bottom, 
and eighteen inches depth. 

9. Johntown Ditch starts from the junction of 
Manhattan and Empire Creeks, at Stony Point, and 
runs along the west side of Empire Creek, a quarter of 
a mile; thence crossing it to the east side of Johntown 
Creek, continues down to Sailor Flat, a distance of 
about two miles by the ditch. Besides these are : 

10. The American Mine Ditch running from the 
pipe tank north of Greenwood, N. N. W. to the Amer 
ican Mine. 

11. McConnell Ditch, from McConnell's Ranch 
Spanish Dry Diggings. 

12. The Penobscot House Diggings Ditch, running 
from the main ditch to some diggings northwesterly 
from the Penobscot House. 

13. The Coloma Ditch, from Dutch Creek to the 
American River, opposite Coloma. 

The Coloma Ditch comes out of Dutch Creek about 
300 feet from the river, and runs along the right bank 
of the South Fork of the American to Pleasant Flat, 



>r- 

to 



KELSEY DITCH. 

unltsUrajl at Main Ditchm 
Gcttryr/rm'/i/ljom/.fnRj'servoir 

atKelreys 






WATER. 183 

reaching that point at an altitude 150 feet above the 
river; the distance being three or four miles. It is de- 
voted to river bar mining and irrigation. 

14. There are, in fact, three ditches along this route, 
all coming out of Dutch Creek. The California Water 
Company is interested in the other two also. 

(6.)— MAIN DITCH— PILOT HILL SECTION. 

The Pilot Hill (Centerville and Wild Goose) Ditch is 
a continuation of the main ditch from Greenwood to 
Pilot Hill, and runs to Ferguson's and Wild Goose 
Flat. Size, thirty inches on top, twenty inches at the 
bottom, and eighteen inches depth. It is in good con- 
dition. It was dry this season on August 11th; but 
water was run in it all last winter. 

BEANCH AND DISTRIBUTING DITCHES, PILOT HILL 
SECTION. 

1. The Old Wild Goose Ditch commences at a 
point on Knickerbocker Creek, near Hogg's. It runs 
its waters to a deep canon called Cooper's Eavine, where 
the main Wild Goose or "Stone Ditch" crosses the 
canon. From this point it runs parallel to the latter as 
far as Wild Goose Flat. Size, 20 inches on top, 14 
inches at the bottom, and 14 inches deep. 

2. Knickerbocker Flat Ditch commences about 
three quarters of a mile west of the Knickerbocker 
House, and one half a mile northwest of the road where 
it crosses the main ditch. It runs to the canon, which 
empties it into Old Wild Goose Ditch. Size, 20 inches 
on top, 14 inches at the bottom, and 15 inches deep. 



184 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

(c).— DITCHES OWNED BY VAEIOUS PABTIES, OTHEE THAN 
THE CALIFOENIA WATEE COMPANY. 

The American Eiver, or Beamer, Ditch takes a large 
body of water out of the American Eiver near the 
Auburn-Georgetown bridge, and carries it to Missis- 
sippi Bar and other points within 12 miles of Sacra- 
mento City. At the upper end, where the water is 
taken out of the river, (Tarnaroo Bar), the size is about 
9 feet on top, 5J- feet at the bottom, and 4 feet depth. 
It is quite a canal; very substantially built, with rock 
walls for a distance of one mile. Thence, downward to 
Mississippi Bar, two or three miles below Folsom, it is 
fUe feet on top, two or three feet at the bottom, and 
three feet depth. The dam in the bed of the American 
River has been swept away again and again; and the 
property has been unavailable to a considerable degree 
and has suffered in consequence. During the past 
summer Beamer & Co. have been putting in a very 
substantial dam, which is well engineered, and, it is 
believed by them, will be permanent. 

Among the ditches on Georgetown Divide, not owned 
by the California Water Company, those noted were : 

1. Barklage Jones' Hill Ditch, which takes the 
water out of the head of Otter Creek, near the Wilkins 
place at Kentucky Flat, draining the country between 
Work's ranch and Mount Gregory, and carries it down 
Little Bald Mountain Divide to Pilot Hill and Jones' 
Hill. Size, 18 inches wide by 14 inches deep. 

2. The Barklage Georgia Slide Ditch takes the 
water out of Canon Creek near Darling's Banch, a 
little above the crossing of the Georgetown trail. Size 
about one foot by one foot. 

3. Hine Ditch, Spanish Dry Diggings, takes the 



Branch of 

| JiELSEY DITCH 

from outlet of Little JteservoirE. of Georgtow/v to jizcujl 
Kelsey Ditch 

aspaced-by Cff.Campbpll . 



Outlet ofReserva&Georye&Owa. 
n TVooc&ride Mzne 




JfolU.nswo7-Eh.Ko. a ( Georgetown. 
Ditch toBerinnetMLrus- url 








to top ofRidqe 50ft 



Falls about 4-0 ft, tojrjnction. 
with, JCe Isey Hiiclt, 



Whiiesides 
a 



SCALE 



ONE 



MILE 



WATER. 185 

water out of Canon Creek, near an old mill site below 
Georgia Slide, three miles above Spanish Dry Dig- 
gings, and carries it to Spanish Dry Diggings; and 
Hine's seam Diggings, If miles farther west. Size, 
about 20 inches wide by 15 inches deep. 

14. The Slate Mountain Ditch is an irrigating ditch 
wned by Dickinson and others, on the divide between 
Rock Creek and Slate Creek ; obtaining its water from 
a branch of Gaddes Creek. 

5. There are numerous other small local irrigating 
ditches, most of which were originally constructed for 
mining purposes. 

6. On the Placerville Divide, is the extensive ditch 
system of the South Fork Company, of which F. A. Bishop 
is the engineer and superintendent. These ditches are 
partly represented on the accompanying map. 

7. On the Forrest Hill Divide, a mining country of 
extensive resources, there is not completed any general 
system of ditches connected with a summer supply of 
water, and mining as an industry consequently holds a 
place far below its true merits. The canon of the Mid- 
dle Fork, between Forrest Hill divide and Georgetown 
divide, is about 1,500 feet deep. Hence it is not be- 
yond the bounds of possibility, under modern hydraulic 
engineering, to deliver water to Forrest Hill and Todd's 
Valley, or even to Michigan Bluffs, from the El Dorado 
Ditch, at the "Horn," or Mount Gregory. [For Min- 
ing Resources on Forrest Hill Divide, see under Min- 
ing-] 

5.— MEASUREMENT— MINERS' INCHES. 

"Water is measured or delivered by the California 
Water Company by the customary square inch apera- 



186 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



ture, under a pressure of six inches, making one inch 
equal to 94.7 cubic feet per hour. 

In other localities, the pressure used is 10 inches, 
making 109.1 cubic feet per hour, as calculated. 

The average of the miner's inch in California is, then, 
about 100 cubic feet per hour, or 1,000 cubic feet per 
day of 10 hours. The average price is ten cents per 
1,000 cubic feet; equal to a cube or tank of 10 feet, 
measured either way. 

For purposes of comparison with quantities else- 
where, I would suggest that the pressure or gauge of 
the water agent should be so regulated, in general, as 
to deliver the average of one hundred cubic feet per hour. 

This would be equivalent to 10 cubic feet, or a trough 
10 feet long, one foot wide, and one foot deep, in six 
minutes; equal to one cubic foot, or a very large bucket, 
in 36 seconds. The cubic foot contains 6.23 gallons. 

The increased proportion of water flowing when 
there is a large amount taken, may be allowed in the 
place of the inducement customarily offered in favor of 
wholesale purchases. 



THE STANDARD MINEE S INCH. 



Pressure from surface 




In Cubic Feet (each 6.23 galls.) 




to top or middle of ori- 


CO* 




AUTHORITY. 


fice (varying.) 


Per Sec. Per Min 


PerHour 


Per 24 Hrs. 




6 inch pressure. 


1 


.039 


2.33 


140 


3360 


Hittell. 


<< (< 


1 


.026 


1.57 


94.7 


2274 


Carpenter. 


<< (< 


38 


1 


60 


3600 


86,400 


Carpenter. 


<< c< 


1000 


a«K 


1580 


94,700 


2,274,000 


Carpenter. 


10 inch pressure. 


1 


.03 


1.8 


109.1 


2618 


Carpenter. 


6 to 10 inch pressure. 


1 


.027 


1.6 


100 


2400 


Standard 


tt a << 


10 


.27 


16 


1000 


24,000 


experimen- 


c< tt it 


100 


2.7 


166. 


10,000 


240,000 


tal Miner's 
Inch. 


tt tt tt 


1000 


27. 


1666 


100,000 


2,400,000 



Estimation of Quantity of Watee observed flow- 
ing in Streams. — The following is the basis on which 
estimations were made of the quantity, in miners' inches, 



WATER. 187 

of water observed flowing in streams crossed during 
my stay on the divide : 

The breadth, depth, and velocity of the stream, in 
feet per minute (as traveled by a chip), were estimated 
by the eye. The sectional area being reduced to square 
feet and decimals thereof, we have multiple x 60 = the 
cubic feet per hour. Divided by 100, or moving the 
decimal point two places to the left, = the miners' 
inches. Or, observe 6 seconds, and distance x area x 6 
=miners' inches. 

6.— EVAPORATION AND SEEPAGE. 

In England, the amount due to evaporation and ab- 
sorption ranges from nine to nineteen inches per an- 
num. In ordinary mountain districts, fourteen inches. 
In some instances evaporation and seepage are found 
as high as twenty-five per cent, of the rainfall. The 
nearest approximation to a rule is to allow one sixth for 
water which cannot be impounded. Kate of flow. 

1. Altitude under Two Thousand Feet — George- 
town to Pilot Hill. — Between Greenwood and Wild 
Goose Flat, during the summer season, according to 
the observation of Mr. Jones, Water Agent, water 
turned on at the former place at 6 p. M. reached Pilot 
Hill in twelve hours, and Wild Goose Flat in eighteen 
hours; the distances being sixteen and twenty-five miles 
by the ditch, respectively. The water accordingly 
flowed at the rate of one and one third miles per hour, 
or 111 feet per minute. LosB.de- 

• • -i ^r\ • livered 35 

The quantity turned on in this case was 100 inches; percent. 
of which thirty-five inches only reached Pilot Hill ; in 
other words, only thirty-five per cent. It was run dur- 
ing the night time. 

Mr. McKusick states that on one occasion, not in the 



188 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



dry season, upon measuring, it was found that out of 
seventy-five inches turned into the ditch at Georgetown, 
loss 20 per seventy inches reached Pilot Hill. 

cent. 

In summer, during the dryest season, with an inter- 
rupted flow of water in the ditches, there is a loss of 
about one half. But when there is a steady flow in the 
dryest season, the loss does not exceed twenty per cent. 
In winter, the evaporation and seepage amount to little 
or nothing. During three fourths of the year, the ad- 
dition of water from tributary ravines makes up for 
more than is lost by evaporation and seepage. 

Delivered " . 

two thirds. 2. Altitude from Two Thousand Five Hundred 
to Four Thousand Feet — Georgetown to Pilot 
Creek Keservoir. — From Pilot Creek Keservoir to 
Georgetown, the loss, especially in summer, is heavy. 
In the upper portion, the ditch runs for several miles 
through a " cement country," where there is an unusual 
amount of seepage. Mr. Gorman, the Ditch Agent, 
says, the water " does not get to Georgetown." Out 
of 300 inches turned on at Pilot Creek Eeservoir, in 
one case, according to Mr. Gorham, only 160 to 200 
L inches reached Georgetown: in other words, about two 

Av. loss not ° ' 

cIS. 20 per thirds. But there would not be that much loss in any 
case, when there is a full supply of water running in 
the ditch. The greatest loss is when the ditch is about 
half full at its head. With a full ditch, in summer, the 
loss from evaporation and seepage on this section 
probably does not exceed twenty per cent. 

Fifteen inches of water observed flowing at the head 
of Eock Creek Ditch, failed to reach its end, or the de- 
bouchure of the ditch into the main Pilot Creek Ditch. 
Only about three fourths of the water let into the 
Pilot Creek Ditch, at Pilot Creek Reservoir, is believed, 
by some of the ditch employes, to reach Georgetown. 



Details- of 

DITCH 
f*°»JOJV£S HILL ro BOTTLE HILL 

as paced by Robert Cash man. 



U 




Jwiction. 
T&servoir 
Headof 
Bottle Mil Gulch 



scau 



A 



WATEK. 



189 



3. Altitude feom Four Thousand to Six Thousand °£ f a a J* ke 
Feet. — The evaporation of the surface of Loon Lake 
Reservoir, during the season of my visit, as represented 
by the receding water line, at the edge of the lake 
(which may include, perhaps, a small amount of seep- 
age), was sixteen to eighteen inches. 

7.— APPLICATION OF WATER TO MINING. 

Water is sold by the California Water Company for Districts, 
mining in the following districts : Georgetown, Georgia 
Slide, Pilot Hill, Crane's Gulch, Mt. Gregory, Volcano- 
ville, Tipton Hill, Spanish Dry Diggings, Greenwood, 
St. Lawrenceville, Kelsey's, Rich Flat, Centerville, 
Wild Goose, and along the South Fork of the Ameri- 
can, to ranches mostly. 

The French claim, or Nagler Company, at Green- Example, 
wood, has paid a total of $20,000 to $30,000 to the 
Water Company; at the rate of $120 a week, for a long 
time. The average rate was more nearly $80 a week, 
running two thirds of the time through the year. 

execution. 
Hydraulic Mining on Georgetown Divide is confined T „. 

J & ° In the seam 

chiefly to the seam diggings. These consist of decom- ^egings. 
posed or slightly metamorphosed slates and shales, 
trending in belts in the strike of the country rock, as 
represented at several points on the map. The country 
rock has become so soft as to be easily removed in 
many places with the pipe; but in other localities this 
can only be done to advantage with the aid of blasting: 
Harder spots are met with, it is true, which are removed 
with little difficulty without blasting, as the rock crum- 
bles into the sluices, and is carried away with the aid 



190 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



A "head. 



Will move 
ii its weight 



In yards, 3 
times the 
inches. 



of larger quantities of water and an unusually high 
sluice grade — 20 inches to the box. 

Under such circumstances the execution of an inch or 
a "head" of water, is necessarily very different from 
rates observed in gravel mining. For purposes of com- 
parison, I have made the following figures : 

In Gravel Mining, 800 inches at 100 feet "head," 
working for ten hours =800 ten-foot cubes of water = 
800,000 cubic feet, weighing 24,880 tons (without add- 
ing thereto the pressure arising from the "head" em- 
ployed), will move through ordinary sluice-grades of 
eight to twelve inches to the box, 3,000 cubic yards of 
loosened gravel, or 2,000 cubic yards of ordinary un- 
cemented bank gravel; say an average of 2,500 cubic 
yards, weighing 8,300 tons; or (y^\°)=z± of the weight 
of water employed. 

Reckoned by inches, the amount of gravel moved = 
three times as many cubic yards as there are miners' 
inches employed. 

Weight of Water. — A cubic foot of water at 62° 
Fahrenheit, weighs 62.321 pounds. One thousand 
cubic feet (10x10x10) equals, accordingly, 62,321 
pounds, or 31.160 tons. 

The weight of gravel, sand, rock, etc., is exhibited 
in the following table. 



1— Clay 

2 — Sand, dry 

3- -Sand, wet 

4— Trap Kock 

5 — Basalt 

6— Quartz 

7— Shale 

8— Slate (clay) 

9- -Decomposed Shale (estimated) . 



Pounds in 


Pounds in 


a cubic foot. 


a cubic yard. 


120 


4800 


88.6 




118 




170 


4,590 


187.3 


5,060 


165 


4,450 


162 


4,370 


180 


4,800 


100 


2,700 



Spec, grav., 
vater being 
equal to 1. 



1.92 

1.42 

1.9 

2.72 

3. 

2.65 

2.6 

2.9 

1.3 



WATER. 



191 



The cost of water for moving a cubic yard, at 10 y^ d cubic 
cents per inch, equals 3J cents per yard. The total 
estimated cost of moving a cubic yard of gravel, in- 
cluding labor and mining, generally equals (according 
to Carpenter, late Secretary of the Excelsior Water 
Company) 20 cents; leaving 16 cents as the amount to 
be attributed to other costs than water, in the prosecu- 
tion of hydraulic mining. 

Applied to Seam Mining. — The principal difference Greater 

friction. 

m the execution of water in decomposed shales, of 
which No. 7 in the above table may be taken as the 
representative, compared with the execution in gravel 
mining, arises less from the difference in weight and 
specific gravity of the material, than from the angular- 
ity of the rock in the instance under consideration. 
The gravel boulders, being round, are lifted up and 
slidden over each other by the aid of the specific grav- 
ity of the water. 

I was not able, from want of time, to make any close p rop0 rtion. 
calculation of the amount of water required, on the 
average, to move a cubic yard of shale or decomposed 
slate under these conditions, nor of the exact yield cor- 
responding to ground removed. Probably the amount 
of water used to move the same number of cubic yards 
of shale would be found, in many cases, to exceed that 
employed in moving gravel from 10 to 20 per cent. In 
other (less frequently occurring) cases, like that of the 
St. Lawrence seam mine at Greenwood, the execution 
would be fully up to that in easy gravel. 

PERMANENCY OF SEAM MINING BY THE 
HYDRAULIC PROCESS. 

Under limited conditions, water, under a high pres- 
sure, as applied to seam mining, operates advantage- dirT^ 06 



192 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

ously. These conditions are referred to under III. and 
VIII., where the possession of water is shown to be an 
efficient agency for prospecting, and for acquiring val- 
uable mines, by hydraulicing away the surface dirt on 
the seam belts. 

Water, in fact, is the essential agency of prospecting. 
Without it in the seam mines nothing can be done, 
even to amount to a tolerable prospecting. 
Permanent But as a means of continuous mining, or anything 

working. 

further than introductory work, water in the seam mines 
encounters two difficulties not met with in hydraulic 
mining. 

Pay. 1. The pay, when struck, does not continue horizon- 

tally in daylight. Its continuation is into the narrow, 
dark and inaccessible interior of the earth. Wherever 
the pay is found, thither the miner with all his appli- 
ances and his ingenuity must follow. 

sMce grade 2. In seam belt mining, the sluice grade is in every 
instance considerably greater. A grade of eight inches 
to 12 feet would take the miner from his outlet in the 
valley up a mountain of 300 feet in a mile. A grade of 
16 inches to the box would carry him up 600 feet in the 
same distance. Except for local and limited undertak- 
ings, in the character of prospecting, hydraulic mining 
must be considered as temporary, and as an initial or 
intermediate proceeding to more methodical and thor- 
ough-going work, where the ground has been proven to 
be first-class mining ground. 

So long as the conditions of hydraulicing continue to 
be favorable, however, it cannot be gainsaid that this 
kind of work on the seam belts is effective, economical, 
and that it frequently promises very great rewards. 



Details of 

CLfPP£R CANON DITCH 



is paced by W.H. VauohrL 



BaldMt. 

|; 60ch.aJjns to ixtpfroin 74- 




J'K/fill 






WATER. 193 



9.— POWER, ETC., FOR MINING AND MILLING 
PURPOSES. 

The Cedarberg Mill was receiving 8 inches of water common 
for battery purposes when I visited it. The St. Law- 
rence Mill was receiving 10 inches of water for its bat- 
tery, although the company had contracted for a little 
more. In neither of these cases is water used for power. 
They are mentioned as suggestive of what might be done 
with water on the seam belts in ways other than liydrau- 
licing. Supposing that the common operations of hy- 
drauiicing on any portion of the seam belts have proven 
a success, there must necessarily follow, as elsewhere 
intimated, three consequences: 

1. Rich pay is struck, which continues, not horizon- under, 
tally along the surface, but down into the bowels of the °P erati °ns. 
earth; 

2. The pay dirt will very soon be piped off, and you 
will be hydraulicing in country rock ; or 

3. If the pay dirt should be continuous for some dis- 
tance, the high sluice grades necessary in seam hydrau- 
licing will soon lead you with your sluice inlet into the 
sky. Now begins mining in earnest. If you have dis- 
covered and definitely located a rich mining deposit, 
you must follow it by the ordinary processes of under- 
ground mining. 

The water you have been using under a high pressure 
for placer hydraulic mining will now come into play to 
meet and obviate the two grand initial drawbacks, the 
necessary preliminary outlays to permanent underground 
mining. 

The cost of underground mining is not so much the 
cost of sinking, and the excavating of tunnels, levels 
13 



194 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

and stopes, as it is getting rid of the material excavated. 
Obviously, if you had your pay ore above ground where 
you want it, the loosening operations alone would be 
but trifling. 

For Hoisting and Pumping, your water in pipes under 
pressure may be used in some cases without destroying 
its usefulness as a placer washing agency. Your power 
may be taken from the pipe at a point as near to the 
head as would yet afford you the necessary power. The 
execution of both water and pressure below that point, 
would remain at your disposal for other purposes. 

The means of communicating your power from that 
point to any other desired point are simple, durable, 
and economical. (See Halliclie's Wire Rope Pamphlet 
for 1873.) Should you become convinced from the 
experience of others that you can work engines or 
machinery without vaporizing your water, and obtain 
the same amount of pressure, you would realize that 
you have in the possession of power a means of continu- 
ing mining operations under ground under highly favor- 
able conditions. I will merely mention in this connec- 
tion the fact that, besides the turbine and hurdy-gurdy, 
the water engine, operating like steam under pressure, 
is a perfected machine which has been successfully em- 
ployed in other countries for many years. 

For drawings of good working machines, I refer you 
to "London Engineering," 1870-3; and for a California 
model, to the Howe Sewing Machine Co., Kearny st., 
San Francisco. A collosal engine of this sort has been 
at work in the mines at Freiberg, Saxony, for 20 years 
or more. (See Concentration of Snlpliurds, Sub. Till.) 

Ditches as a Means of Teanspoetation. — Ditches can 
he taken advantage of for the purpose of transporting 
mining timbers to the mine ; so that when operations 



WATER. 195 

are continued under ground, timbering will cost little 
more than the item of cutting timber. 

10.-APPLICATION TO AGBICULTUKE. 

Your water may be applied to Agriculture in three 
different ways, entirely distinct in their policy. 

1. Sale of water to agriculturists. 

2. Application to agricultural lands owned by the 
company. 

3. Sale of water for a certain share in the proceeds, 
or sale of the company's stock, so that the agriculturist 
may participate in the management, and dividends of 
the company. In either case, a practical community of 
interest. 

Cases two and three are elsewhere referred to. Con- 
cerning case one, Mr. Jones thinks he could now collect 
$1,000 per annum, from twelve or fifteen farmers resid- 
ing below Greenwood. 

The proportion of water sales hitherto at Georgetown, Smallre . 
Greenwood and Kelsey's to agriculturists has been very turns ' 
small; indeed, been too trifling to be worth mentioning. 
Parties requiring two, four, and ten inches for a few 
j months during the dryest season, were the only takers. 
There is not enough income from this source to pay for 
the trouble of measuring and collecting. The total 
water sold for irrigation during the dry season is under 
$500. 

Agriculturists generally talk a good deal to this effect: Farmed 
that if they were assured of a constant supply, at rea- 
sonable rates, they would sow alfalfa, and raise three or 
four crops in the course of the year, and so be able to 
take and pay for a considerable quantity of water. 

These and other like propositions should, and un- 
doubtedly will, receive the fair consideration of the 



talk. 



196 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



stockholders and directors of the company, at their 
annual meetings. 

Disappoint- Where parties have heretofore undertaken to put in 
from four to fifteen acres of clover, as during the past 
season, they can only be said to have been a little pre- 
mature, because the Little South Fork ditch, connecting 
with Loon Lake reservoir, had not been completed. The 
season having proved unsually dry, while the water 
company was bound by contracts, as well as by policy, 
to supply the quartz mills, where water was being taken 
day and night the year round, of course these isolated 
agriculturists had to be disappointed. 

It is an important consideration to the farmer who 
plants a crop or starts an orchard, to know whether his 
water supply in any dry season may be liable to be cut 
off, and his labor and property consequently forced to 
go to ruin. 

Experience. The extent to which agriculture may be followed suc- 
cessfully by respectable populations in the foot-hills 
and in the mining regions is not yet fully developed. 
In a few localities on other Divides there have been 
profitable results. I can only refer to the horticultur- 
ists of Coloma and Placerville ; to the Natoma Ditch 
Company's operations, based upon the policy of using 
their own water on their own land ; to the Auburn and 
Newcastle vineyards, in connection with railroad trans- 
portation; to the experiments of the hay and strawberry 
farmers at Smarts ville ; and to the vineyard of Pauline 
on the Upper Honcut and others situated on the road 
between Marysville and La Porte, Sierra County; to 
the experience of the migratory stock - rangers of the 
foot-hills and of the high Sierra, etc. 

substantial. Enough has been done in these localities, and by 
methods here suggested, to demonstrate beyond a 



WATER. 197 

doubt the existence of substantial agricultural capa- 
bilities in this region, of a very respectable character. 
Whether you may prefer to utilize these directly as a 
company, collectively or individually, the fact of devel- 
opment implies that the first share of the profits is to 
go to the water company. 

Development means profit. 

The agricultural interest in the mountains, notwith- ideas, 
standing its promises and the unquestionable attract- 
iveness of the climate, is despised by all capitalists 
whose money is invested in mining. 

The California Water Company will find it necessary, water mar- 
ket. 
in order to stimulate agriculture and horticulture on 

Georgetown Divide, to create its own market in this di- 
rection by developing capabilities, tempting people to 
locate, initiating practicable methods, and pointing out 
results in order to induce, if not immigration, at least 
to prevent a further emigration and depopulation. 

The Quantity of Water required to irrigate an Acre GrasS) 
varies considerably, depending chiefly upon the crop, fruit. ' 
Vines require very little; none after they are rooted. 
Other fruit requires irrigation. An inch of water run- 
ning night and day will irrigate from one to ten acres 
for some products. For grass and clover, 10 inches, 
running three days in the week (of 24 hours each), 
would irrigate ten acres. Perhaps a constant flow of 
five inches to every ten acres would be near the mark ; 
in other products one half an inch to the acre. 

The few results I have obtained, as examples, of the 
quantity of water required to irrigate an acre, may be 
stated as follows : 

For Hay, one inch to half an inch per acre, running 
night and day. 



198 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Acreage 
controlled. 



Diversion 
to agricul- 
ture. 



For Berries and neivly planted Vines, one half to one 
quarter inch per acre, running night and day. 

For Trees, one quarter to one tenth of an inch per 
acre, running night and day. 

The question of greatest importance to the Water 
Company is : Given a certain quantity of water which 
may be diverted during the dry season to agriculture ; 
how large a country in acres will it supply? And what 
amount of country, or crop, so supplied, can afford to 
pay the largest price for water? 

Policy dueing the Dey Season. — It should be the 
policy of the Water Company to divert to agriculture 
every inch of water that can possibly be done during 
the dry season, without real detriment to the mining 
interest. Agriculture being permanent, with permanent 
demands for water, it is worthy of this consideration. 

The abundant winter supply of water may be de- 
pended upon to do most of the heavy work necessary to 
be done by water in mining. As the agriculturist 
prepares in winter for more energetic operations in the 
summer, so should the miner prepare in summer for his 
more energetic operations in the coming winter. 



Adapted to 
operations. 



LAND. 



There is any quantity of land to be had at $1.25, S2. 
50, and $5.00 an acre, suitable for stock ranges, in con- 
nection with fruit, and nut orchards, vineyards, aud 
plantations for berry culture, etc. The valleys are 
usually narrow; yet, large enough, and not unsuitable 
for this kind of farming . About one half of the soil 
of the hills is uninviting for any purpose other than 
for stock ranges. But with the aid of fencing, and al- 
ternation in grazing, the latter interest, aided by a little 



WATEE. 199 

irrigation — say, of twenty to forty acres to every 600 — 
would flourish extensively. 

11.— FOE CITY SUPPLY. 

Sacramento is situated opposite the west end of Force 

puraps. 

Georgetown Divide. The city is supplied with water 
by pumping from Sacramento River. " Holly's system" 
of pumping, which has been adopted recently, consists 
in forcing water into the pipes with such a pressure as 
would equal the effect of a head of 100 to 150 feet from 
an elevated reservoir, for which there is no ground in 
the vicinity. 

Cost of Raising Water for City Supply. — Data on Data for 
this subject were published from time to time in the 
Sacramento Union during 1872-3, before the introduc- 
tion of the Holly works. In December, 1873, water 
was pumped for two weeks at the rate of 870,458 gal- 
lons per day, with 1,573 lbs of coal and three cords of 
wood per day; the column being 165 feet, and the degree 
of domestic pressure thirty pounds to the square inch. 
The population of Sacramento is about 16,000. 

The commissioners of inquiry, concerning town sup- 
plies in England, reckoned the cost at 0.358 to 0.150 
pence to raise 1,000 gallons 100 feet. The lowest 
estimate was one shilling to raise 80,000 gallons 100 
feet. 

The cost of water to individual consumers in Sacra- 
mento, under the Holly system , has increased over that 
of the former system, which consisted in simply raising 
the water to a tank. Houses now pay from 11.50 to 
$2.50 per month. 

The greater economy of water from the mountains will 
be the inducement in future for the adoption of the and i )i P e - 



200 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

" ancient and approved" natural system of supply. It 
is no longer necessary to build the enormous aqueducts 
characteristic of ancient cities. The Iron Age has fur- 
nished a simpler and cheaper means of conduit in 
wrought iron pipes, and ^he quantities which, may be 
supplied with economy under such a system corresponds 
more nearly with the wants of a city which is destined 
to flourish in the arts, in civilization and manufactures 
in years to come. 
Advantages. The demand for water to irrigate in and around a 
large city is extensive, and the price paid for such pur- 
poses is correspondingly large. A plan relating to this 
subject is recommended to your attention elsewhere, 
(VIII.) Such a plan, if adopted, would place your 
company in a better position to supply Sacramento with 
water than any other ditch company existing, for sev- 
eral reasons. 

1. The ditches would be completed without further 
outlay to a point ten or twelve miles from Sacramento, 
sufficiently elevated to command the highest buildings 
that can be erected in Sacramento. 

2. Your supply would not be subject to any possible 
future admixture of impurities from mining at your 
sources of supply. 

3. The amount of water at your disposal in the dry 
season, when water is most wanted in the valley, would 
be unlimited. 

12.— SAN FKANCISCO WATEK SUPPLY. 

supply The Spring Valley reservoir, at San Andreas Valley, 

San Mateo County, holds a reserve supply of one bil- 
lion gallons of water. The dam is completed, faced 
with cobble stonework inside, and constructed with a 



WATER. 201 

view to permanence for centuries. The flowing water 
is brought from a great distance down in the San Mateo 
Coast Kange, and about all the available sources within 
reach south of the Golden Gate are tapped for the ben- 
efit of the metropolis. The Market street main, how- 
ever, is only eight inches in diameter, and such streets 
as Montgomery and Kearny have only six-inch mains, 
while on other streets, the pipes are from two to six 
inches; a size, independently of the supply, inadequate 
to meet the necessities of great fires and other like 
emergencies. 

But the Spring Valley Company is the most merci- Monopoly. 
less of all monopolies; and they have so hedged them- 
selves that there appears to be no recourse left to San- 
Francisco, other than the inauguration of another 
scheme of water supply. 

If the people of San Francisco can not purchase the Project. 
Spring Valley works or Lake Merced at a moderate 
figure, they will be forced to look to the Sierra Nevada; 
and the California Water Company is believed to be in 
a better position to offer both Sacramento and San 
Francisco an unlimited water supply than any other 
company yet organized. 

Beside Von Schmidtz's Lake Tahoe project, there is 
a similar one set on foot by W. B. Clarke, of Calaveras 
County, who proposes to bring water to San Francisco 
from the head of the North Fork of the Mokelumne 
river. The length of pipe required by him, via Liver- 
more Pass or San Jose, would be about ninety miles. 

113.— APPLICATION TO MANUFACTURES. 
What is said in regard to power for mining purposes 
applies equally to the power required for manufactures, 



202 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



At Sacra- 
mento. 



Sacramen- 
to's prob- 
lem. 



whether in the forest region on the western slope of the 
Sierra, or the growing requirements of Sacramento. 

Sacramento is situated at the head of tide water. 
Were it possible to furnish it with cheap water power, 
that city would soon develop a variety of manufacturing 
interests. Without entering here into any calculation 
of the loss of head which would result from friction, in 
from 12 to 18 miles of pipe, or to the possibility of 
of carrying in pipes under great pressure a sufficient 
amount of power to make this item an object of busi- 
ness consideration, I merely call your attention to the 
fact that the water used for power at Sacramento would 
not be lost, but would still supply the city in the same 
manner as if the power had not been used; and that 
under such situations where the water would not need 
to be, or could not be easily continued in the pipes after 
having been used for power, it could be applied to irri- 
gation directly in the neighborhood of the city. The 
American River will never answer for this purpose, be- 
cause it is too intermittent; in summer it is sluggish, in 
winter it is unmanageable. 

This would be simply taking the power of a fine 
mountain stream (though artificial) from a point nearer 
to Sacramento than Folsom, and, by means of a pipe 
ten or fifteen miles in length, applying it in the city, 
where both the power and the water are wanted ad lib- 
itum, and where there is money to pay for the same. 

The benefit to Sacramento of such an arrangement, if 
practicable, would of course be incalculable. If from 
your pipes you can transform a pressure equal to that 
of steam in a steam boiler into power, by means of the 
water engine — the application of old and simple me- 
chanical (levices — you will have solved the problem of 
furnishing manufacturing power for Sacramento. 



WATER. 203 

It should be remembered in this connection that the JeldaM 
friction arising in the pipe in so great a distance would prefeSure - 
operate only as a loss of head. In other words the pres- 
sure in the pipes at Sacramento would be reduced ex- 
actly in proportion to the loss of head by friction. 
Wrought iron pipe, to bear from 300 to 500 feet head 
pressure, could be laid into Sacramento City without 
any difficulty, or mechanical drawbacks whatever. 



204 



GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 



Independ- 
ent indus- 
tries. 



VI.-OTHER RESOURCES. 

1. — TlMBEE. 

2. — Manufactueebs' Standpoint. 
3. — Faemebs' Standpoint. 
4. — Communications. 

The agricultural, timber, and manufacturing re- 
sources of Georgetown Divide have been touched upon 
heretofore only as corollaries to the application of 
water, and the development of mines. Something 
should be said concerning them in this connection 
as independent resources, or the foundation of pres- 
ent or future industries not connected with mining. 



Bearing 
transporta- 
tion. 



Loeal Rail- 
road. 



1.— TIMBER 

Under " Physical Geography," the timber belts were 
outlined and located. In the manufacture of timber 
into lumber, transportation is the all important question. 
As the heavy timber belts are above mid-slope, and as 
there is no railroad on this side of the river, wagon- 
ing to Auburn or to Folsom furnishes the only means 
of communication with the market. Hence, at present, 
nothing but sugar pine lumber, worth from $50 to $75 
a thousand, can be manufactured and transported with 
profit. This is being done to a limited extent in the 
woods near Georgetown. 

It is enough to say, that there are timber resources 
on this- divide which, at some future day, will probably 
be worth the money to build its own railroad, to secure 
its outlet to market. By this is meant a local, timber 
railroad, connecting with the Placerville road, perhaps 



OTHER RESOURCES. 205 

via Dutch Creek, Rock Creek, or Silver Creek; or with 
the Central Pacific, not far from Auburn. 

The adaptation of railroads to local and special traffic 
is a problem engaging the active energies of many thou- almSn 
sand practical engineers the world over. Where re- 
sources exist, therefore, adjacent to a market which can 
be depended upon, the question of economical trans- 
portation by railroad is one which will certainly be 
solved at an early day. 

Nor is it necessary to make figures in regard to the 
value of the timber resources of the Georgetown Divide, Extent of 

timber. 

when it is known that their extent is equal to the area 
of the divide within the bounds specified under " Phy- 
sical Geography" — roughly, at least 200 square miles of 
the finest timber in the world. Some of this stands, of 
course, in inaccessible canons — probably half. Much 
of it can be floated easily in large ditches to convenient 
depots for working up and for transportation. 

In the construction of a timber railroad, one road, 
to connect with the broad-gauge railroads, can, with T W odi- 
branch termini, be made to answer for two divides. 

The ownership of timber lands is a matter which will 
bear figuring upon very soon, as certainly as the ma- Timber 

property. 

terial progress of California in general may be depend- 
ed upon in the next ten years. 



2.— MANUFACTURING, FROM THE MANUFAC- 
TURERS' STAND-POINT. 

This subject has been touched upon as affording a Materaland 
market for water. The conditions on which wooden power * 
manufactures for California and Nevada depend are 
such, that nothing in this line is likely to be undertaken 
for years, except under the auspices or encouragement 



be made. 



206 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

of companies owning extensive timber lands and water 
power. With a view to the enhancement of the value 
of such property, a practical phase of manufacturing 
has already been touched upon. (Y.) From the man- 
ufacturers' stand-point it may be said, that here is the 
material, ad libitum, to be had at $1 25 to $2 50 per 
acre. The railroad grant covers only about one fourth 
of the good timber lands of Georgetown Divide, and 
here is water power unlimited, conveniently situated. 
There is no toll to be paid on the main ridge road from 
Georgetown to Sacramento Valley, via Salmon Falls, 
All sorts of articles manufactured from wood, such as 

What can buckets, staves, barrels, bedsteads, soap-root mattress 
material, furniture in general, etc., sawed and planed 
in bulk to be put together below, will easily bear trans- 
portation by wagon. If the cost, quality and amount 
of material, and economy of power are items that can 
tell decisively in favor of other divides of the Sierra 

question. Nevada than the single narrow Central Pacific Railroad 
Divide, which is already nearly divested of its timber, 
then the item of transportation upon manufactured arti- 
cles of the kind described, worth from $200 to $2,000 
per ton, is becoming even now a practical question of 
business inquiry. 

At sacra. On the subject of poicer to be applied in Sacramento 

Yalley, or Sacramento City itself, for manufacturing- 
purposes, I have stated the capabilities of an extensive 
water supply, like that owned by the California Water 
Company. It needs no argument to prove that power 
so furnished would be of incalculable benefit to Sacra- 
mento City. A city with very little good and available 
agricultural country around it, unaided by irrigation, 
situated at the head of tide water ; the addition of 
cheap power for manufacturing would furnish the miss- 



memo. 



OTHER RESOURCES. 207 

iiig element to make it a flourishing centre for an inde- 
pendent and growing population. In the heart of the 
great valley, and in full view of the snow-capped Sierra, 
a city of a hundred thousand permanent, prosperous 
and happy homes would soon grow up. 

3.— AGKICULTUBE FKOM THE EABMEKS' 
STAND-POINT. 

men. 

Notwithstanding all that has been said concerning 
the advantages and capabilities of the foot-hills, agri- 
culture in the mountains has not flourished. Notwith- 
standing the quality of the fruit raised there, its abund- 
ance with the aid of a little certain irrigation, notwith- 
standing the established tests concerning profits on 
fruits, nuts, grapes, berries, wine, there is something 
wanting which stiil prevents earnest and able men of 
good business capacity from taking hold of agriculture 
in the mountains. Homes for, 

The trouble is, that practical people cannot afford to 
devote their time to improvements when they are to be 
at the mercy of chance, or at the whim of others, after 
they have succeeded in making a property and a home 

WOrth having. Diversified 

"Were it necessary, it would be easy to state numerous 
examples of the profits of stock summered in the high 
Sierras, the owners of which live in the foot-hills. 
These people are not independent in their foot-hill 
homes, because they have not what can be called per- 
manent homes, where they reside a greater portion of 
the year. Give them the guarantee or the ownership 
on any terms, on shares or otherwise ; of water to irri- 
gate from ten to forty acres for every five hundred or 
six hundred acres of grazing, or vineyard, or nut-tree 
land owned — the means, in short, of carrying on diver- 



Road of the 
Period. 



208 GEOBGETOWN DIVIDE. 

sified agriculture, such as our fathers carried on in the 
east, in fruit, nuts, neat-cattle, sheep, Angora goats, 
butter, cheese, etc., and before many years run by, there 
will be a reflux of agricultural population, instead of the 
continued depopulation of the mountain counties. A 
better class of plodding, steady farmers, who only un- 
dertake to make property, and to build up homes when 
they can see their ivay clear for themselves and for pos- 
terity, will take the place of that nomadic race of min- 
ers of the early days, which has now very nearly passed 
into history. 

4.— COMMUNICATIONS. 
For agriculture as well as for manufacturing, trans- 
portation is one of the vital questions. Since the rail- 
road is in a land of grand distances and of intervening 
barren regions, of remote situations like the Pacific 
slope, emphatically the "road of the period," there is 
no help for us, but we must have railroads everywhere. 
"Aiding The history of El Dorado County, in the matter of 

r&ilroncls " 

"aiding railroads," offers a queer comment upon the 
abuses of legislation, wherein the public communica- 
tions were partially paid for by the people, resulting 
in defeating the ends "of the people and of the monop- 
olists of the public highways alike. 
The sheriff El Dorado County is now so deeply in debt, in con- 

and the rails 

sequence of having voted subsidies for railroads, that, 
at the time of my visit the Board of Supervisors, as 
representatives of the county, had been compelled for 
some months to disorganize, in order to escape the 
legal processes of the Ceutral Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, brought in judgment against them for liabilities, 
which the impoverished county was unable to meet. 
The only factotum of the county left was the county 
clerk. The stricken county offers so little traffic for its 



OTHER RESOURCES. 209 

railroad from Sacramento to Shingle Springs, that there 
has been a standing threat from the railroad company, 
on the plea of inadequate traffic, to take up the iron 
rails, and abandon the road. 

The prairie schooner and the stage line are to super- Prairie 

r cj -l schooner. 

sede the "road of the period," and so avenge them- 
selves for having been crushed out of existence by the 
subsidies of the people in favor of railroads. 

The public communications must, from motives of Private ve. 

* public m- 

policy, if not of justice to the people, be absolutely tereBt - 
controlled by the people in their own interest, if not 
owned by them. The laws or precedents which make 
these communications private property have everywhere 
become, sooner or later, an unbearable outrage to the 
community concerned. The salvation of El Dorado 
County now depends upon two contingencies : 

1. "Whether the State will help it pay its debt; salvation. 

2. "Whether the county shall have vitality enough 
left to secure jagain in the lifetime of a generation, the 
control of her ordinary public communications, on 
which every interest is dependent. 

Both of these questions have been answered by events 
in the affirmative. [See laws of 1873-4] 



U 



210 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



VI I. -FINANCIAL AND STATISTICAL. 

1. — Other Property. 
2. — Costs op Materials. 
3. — El Dorado Statistics. 

1.— OTHEE PEOPEETY OWNED BY THE CALI- 
FOBNIA WATEE COMPANY. 

(1.) 10 lots in Georgetown. 

(2.) Brick "Water Office, Georgetown; safes, furni- 
ture, etc. 

(3.) Dwelling-house occupied by the Superintendent 
(Mr. Bradley). 

(4.) A house and lot at the reservoir, near George- 
town. 

(5.) Various buildings arid improvements for the ac- 
commodation of employees along the lines of ditches; 
Jones' house at the Davis reservoir; the Gorman House 
above Tunnel Hill; house at Pilot Creek reservoir; Fra- 
zer's Camp, head of Pilot Creek; Hanna's Camp on the 
Little South Fork, at the head of the Little South Fork 
Ditch. These are all good and substantial buildings, 
which will last for a century. 

(6.) Lots at various points, located for reservoirs, 
which may be desirable or required in future. 

(7.) The Eichardson ranche, situated at the head of 
Mount Gregory ridge. 

(8.) Timber locations. 

(9.) Water locations on the Eubicon and elsewhere. 

(10.) Mining locations. 

(11.) A very complete set of surveying instruments 
and engineering tools. 



FINANCIAL AND STATISTICAL. 211 

2.— COSTS OF MATERIALS, DITCHING, 
FREIGHT, LABOR, ETC. 

Lumber— $12 to $17 per thousand at the mill. 

Freight — From Auburn to Georgetown, 50 cents per 
hundred; from Sacramento to Georgetown, $4.50. 

Wages— $2.50 per day; $30 to $40 per month and 
found; miners, above ground, $2.50; under ground, $3. 

Excavating, by Chinese labor, under contract, has 
been done at the rate of $2.50 per yard of ditch 3 feet 
deep, 6 feet on top, and 4 feet at the bottom. 

Water is sold at 10 cents per inch per day of 10 or 11 
hours; 20 cents per inch for 24 hours. 

3.— EL DORADO COUNTY STATISTICS. 

The following figures are compiled from the returns 
of the County Assessors of El Dorado County, for 1872 
and 1873. Being taken in connection with, and as a 
foundation for, the levy of taxes, they are always, under 
some heads considerably under the mark, and under 
others, perhaps, a little over : 

Just half, as near as can be estimated by the eye, of Georgetown 

' and Placer - 

the county is comprised in Georgetown Divide; a pro- vine Divide 
portion which accordingly represents the county north 
of the South Fork of the American to, and including, 
Lake Valley (Tahoe) ; the other half constituting Placer- 
ville Divide. For convenience of comparison, all the 
figures for 1872, are given first, those for 1873, immedi- 
ately following, and enclosed in parentheses. 
Such comparison will show at once the progress The aver- 

1 . age truth. 

made, and serve as a check on defective returns ; thus 
furnishing the data for a pretty good guess at the aver- 
age truth. The Assessor for 1873, did not stop to count 



212 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

so many trees as his predecessor of 1872, but discovered, 
on the other hand, that they were making a good deal 
of butter in the high Sierra. The number of Angora 
goats has increased; but other stock is less numerously 
counted in 1873. The number of registered voters 
shows a decided decrease of population, while the poll- 
tax receipts would indicate a slight increase in the 
population. The assessed value of real estate, in 1873, 
is considerably larger than in 1872, but not so the total 
valuation. 

Assessed Value of Property of El Dorado County. 
— Keal estate, $414,327; ($479,471). Improvements, 
$911,088; ($777,315). Personal property, $1,077,038; 
($864,245). Total valuation, $2,402,453; ($2,121,031). 

Population.— Estimated. total, 9,600; (9,220). Re- 
gistered voters, 4,624; (2.800). Poll-taxes collected in 
1871, $2,725; in 1872, $2,844. 

Mining and Mining Ditches. — Number of quartz 
mills, 40; number of mining ditches, 54; miles in length, 
850. Amount of water used per day, in inches, 6,720. 

Irrigation. — Irrigating ditches, 27 ; (20) . Acres ir- 
rigated, 1,320; (1,320). 

Railroads. — There is but one railroad, the Sac. Val- 
ley, having a length of 18f miles. The Central Pacific 
Railroad, however, runs along one end of the county 
for 20 miles, within a few miles of the boundary; 
and the county not only contributed towards its con- 
struction, but has one third of its lands doubled in 
price, in consequence of the United States land grant 
donated in aid of the Central Pacific Railroad. 

Grist Mills. — Steam power, 1; water power, 2; (1). 

Saw Mills. — Steam power, 8; water power, 2. Feet 
of lumber sawed, 1,282,900. 

Distilleries, (6). 



FINANCIAL AND STATISTICAL. 213 

Stock, etc. — Sheep, 10,594; (13,417). Cashmere 
and Angora goats, 68; (280). Hogs, 2728; (2074). 
Beehives, 368. Horses, 1,924; (1,448). Mules, 158; 
(107). Asses, 21; (12). Cows, 4,340; (3,817). Calves, 
1,480; (1,060). Beef cattle, 4,554; (3,861). Oxen, 220; 
(167). Total neat cattle, 10,594; (8,905). 

Yines and Wine Manufacture. — Yines, 1,571,196 
(1,444,950). Gallons of wine manufactured, 192,865 
(103,060). Gallons of brandy manufactured, 6,665 
(3,320). 

Breweries, 4. 

Fruit and Nut Trees.— Figs, 985; (578). Mulberry, 
5,415. Almond, 219; (133). Walnut, 119. Apple, 
85,724; (81,581). Peach, 42,993; (25,591). Pear, 
9,297; (22,930). Plums, 11,763; (8375). Cherry, 
2,295; (1,511). Nectarine, 967; (892). Quince, 763; 
(424), Apricot, 341; (196). 

Acres of Land Enclosed in 1871, 41,252; cultivated 
in 1871, 10,447. Enclosed in 1872, 68,000; cultivated 
in 1872, 10,643. 

Wheat.— Acres, 747; (502). Bushels, 5,224; (4,321). 

Barley.— Acres, 321; (619). Bushels, 3,089; (6,023). 

Oats.— Acres, 218; (150). Bushels, 800; (718). 

Eye. — Acres, 166. Bushels, 401. 

Corn. — Acres, (40); bushels, (113). 

Hay.— Acres, 3,769; (3,557). Tons, 1,252; (1,724). 

Miscellaneous Farm Produce. — Butter, lbs, 1,060; 
(12,176). Cheese, 700 ; (794). Wool, lbs., 1,100; (6,- 
205). Honey, lbs., 423. 

Potatoes. — Acres, 90; tons, 6,120. 



214 GEOKGETOWN DIVIDE. 



VIII.--PRACTTCAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

1. — Situation. 

2. — Advantages. 

3. — Operations. 

4. — Partial Execution oe the Plan. 

5. — Development of Mining Properties. 

6. — Policy in Kegard to Agriculture. 

7. — Sacramento Valley and City Water Supply. 

8. — Manufactures . 

9. — Possibilities. 

10.— Policy in Kegard to Extension. 
11. — Interest on Investments, and Dividends. 
12. — Various Suggestions. 

1. THE SITUATION. 

The property of the California "Water Company, in 
ditches, mines, and lands, owned or controlled is im- 
mense. 

What is required to make the most of the situation is 
a keen perception of values within reach, and proven 
by actual test. 

In horticulture, agriculture, mining and manufactures 
it is left to the water company to foster general prosperity, 
and to reap its principal results. 

DECADENCE AND KEVOLUTION. 
In grasping the idea of the situation, the status of 
the Divide is significantly represented by the census 
reports, taken by decades. In 1850 El Dorado county 
had a population of 20,000; in 1860, 20,500; and in 
J870, only 10,300. The same proportion holds true in 
Amador, Calaveras and Placer counties. That is to 
say, there is now only half the population in the coun- 
try; and of this half the proportion actually engaged in 
mining is probably more fairly stated at one tenth. Kel- 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 215 

sey's had 1200 people in I860, and but 300 in 1870; 
Greenwood, 1000 in 1860, and only 550 in 1870; Big 
Bar Township, 1100 in 1860, and none in 1870. 

Yet the gold product of California has decreased only 
60 per cent, from the highest it has ever been; and all 
of it is produced from deposits that were abandoned by 
the miners of the heroic period because they would not 
'pay. El Dorado county must have produced one tenth 
of the $600,000,000 of gold produced by California be- 
fore 1860, or $60,000,000, of which Georgetown Divide 
produced half. 

The revolution that has taken place elsewhere has 
been " dragging its slow length along" also on George- 
town Divide. 

Decadence and dilapidation, in shanties and tatters; 
in stranded human waifs; in ruins, suggestive of lawless 
activities and heroics, in those Troys and Pompeiis of 
the period — Johntown, Kelsey's, Yolcanoeville and 
Mt. Gregory, where now everything is serenely dead — 
the logic of events branded into the unsuccessful aver- 
age miner's soul, and coined into the words "exhausted" 
and "mined out." This lowest trough of the great sea 
of population which had risen as high as the Sierra, 
has imperceptibly passed us in California, so that it re- 
mains still necessary to point out definitely and fully 
the substantial resources of the country, before it can 
be expected to be believed that all the gold California 
has to give, did not lie upon the surface. 

They have had no water on Georgetown Divide to 
sluice systematically. The veins and seam belts have 
not been understood to be worked discriminatingly. 
The natural wealth which maintained in El Dorado 
county for the first ten years of our history, the largest 



216 



GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 



population of any county in the State, is evidently still 
there, and not far under the surface. 



Develop- 
ment of 
properties. 



History 



Perennial 
supplies. 



2.— ADVANTAGES. 

The California Water Company's chief advantage lies 
in the fact that the water, which costs them nothing be- 
yond ditching and fluming, may serve them in the place 
of money, and quite as effectually, in procuring for them 
great dividend yielding properties, either wholly or, (if 
preferred,) only cooperatively conducted, or owned by 
them. 

Under this view of the situation, the mines and other 
resources of Georgetown divide can call into requisition 
at once and pay for all the water that all the ditches, 
completed or projected, can possibly deliver. 

To counterbalance the former richness of the gulch 
and river placers, so successfully worked here between 
1849 and 1856 — placers which could be only once de- 
posited and once exhausted in a geological epoch — you 
have now at your command: 1. A perfect knowledge of 
the localities that were richest in gold, the sources of 
deposits proven to be worthy of systematic exploitation. 
2. The experiences of twenty-five years of gold mining 
in general; 3. All the improvements in appliances, ma- 
chinery and method developed in other portions of the 
State. 

3.— OPERATIONS. 

The completion of your canal to the Little South 
Fork this summer, and the utilization of the stores of 
Loon Lake Basin, will place this company with all its 
distributing ditches in a position commanding a larger 
area of valuable mining, agricultural and timber lands 
than any other corporation of the sort in California, or 






PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 217 

in the United States. City water supply, the primary Jj^ 611 * 
object of most large water companies, is to you a no 
less promising object of revenue, and one no less cer- 
tain of attainment than if it had been the primary ob- 
ject of your incorporation; yet it is only an incidental 
feature of a grand system of developments, vastly more 
important, broader, and much more interesting, in view 
of all the possibilities of expansion which are pointed 
out elsewhere in this Report. 

4.— PARTIAL EXECUTION OF THE PLAN. 

It should be understood that the California Water Anticipated 

prosperity. 

Company has only commenced to do that which is in 
process of execution, the benefits from which can not 
be anticipated before the plan on which you have based 
your organization shall have been further carried out. 

The abundant, unfailing summer supply of water 
requisite, with its application to prosperous mining and 
prosperous agriculture, wherever the divide affords con- 
ditions worthy of such application, are but partially 
attained. 

Tlie water sales have heretofore been made chiefly in 
the winter season, and extending into the summer to 
June. After that they have fallen off. The Pilot Creek 
Ditch supply has fallen off to one hundred inches dur- 
ing the latter part of the summer and fall. During the 
coming season, (1874, or as soon as the Little South 
Fork ditch is completed,) the supply will be constant 
through the summer, and the water sales may even ex- 
ceed those of the winter. [For " Summer Supply,' 
see under Ditches, Little South Fork Section, and 
Loon Lake Reservoir.] 



218 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



5.— DEVELOPMENT OE MINING PKOPEETIES. 

par. If the possession of this water, and that alone, as a 

prospecting or developing agency, can furnish yon title 
to mines individually worth more than all that has been 
laid out in the operations of the Company, it may be 
worth your while to consider a little more particularly 
this principle : that water can be turned at will into gold 
direct, or into a golden entering wedge of investment 
as good as par under any circumstances. Under intel- 
ligent management, based upon a thorough knowledge 
of the character of the mines and the results of the ex- 
perience and expenditures of others in prospecting, it 
would be no difficult matter at all to designate a num- 
ber of localities where water, which is already at com- 
mand in quantities, and under pressure, could be made 
to disclose rich deposits, showing every probability of 
continuance into depth. 

Risks. -^ the California Water Company is not already a 

mining company as much as a water company, it can 
become such without taking the usual risks of miners, 
in prospecting and opening and testing ground of sus- 
pected or proven wealth. 

Prospecting One course which would insure to you all the benefi- 
cial results from risks undertaken by others, and quite 
as thoroughly as if all were under your own direction, 
control and expense, would be to furnish the miners 
with the means of prospecting., especially in winter 
time; or perhaps with lengths of claim pipe, of which 
there ought to be transportable extras in quantity al- 
ways at hand ; or occasionally, indeed, to advance sup- 
plies in part, if that were necessary to accomplish de- 
sired explorations, allowing the miner say one half, for 
his portion of the work of discovery and development. 



PEACTICAL CONSIDEEATIONS. 



219 



The Water Company should own a team and lumber SSSSLda. 
wagon to transport such pipe and other articles from 
one locality to another in order to facilitate undertak- 
ings in ground believed or known to be rich, yet lying 
idle. All the initial difficulties in the way of develop- 
ment would be thus swept aside at the expense of a lit" 
tie forethought, and without any outlay by the Com- 
pany worth mentioning ; yet all would be done under 
their own direction and control, and for their own 
benefit. 

When a mine eventually changes from a hydraulic power. 
mine to an underground mine of a paying character, the 
furnishing of water power, and a turbine wheel for hoist- 
ing and pumping would be a small item to set against 
securing, in any mine worth having, a half interest or 
one half of the yield. 

(6.) — POLICY IN KEGAKD TO AGBICULTUKE. 

Steps should be taken calculated to inaugurate agri- Agricultu- 
ral indepen- 

cultural prosperity on the Divide. This can only be dence - 
done by opening the way to agricultural independence 
— the only inducement for vigorous men to locate — 
hence the only road to market for water in this direction. 

By furnishing water to the horticulturist and stock 
farmer, you may, on general principles, share in the 
proceeds of all the most promising undertakings in this 
line adapted to the conditions of the country. 

Permanent agriculture implies cheaper supplies of 
every kind ; therefore economy in mining, in local 
manufactures, and other undertakings generally. 



220 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

7.— SACKAMENTO VALLEY AND CITY WATEK 
SUPPLY. 

waters once ^ J ou would take full advantage of your position you 
should catch up your water again in the middle and 
North Fork of the American below their junction, for 
application in the foot-hills valleys, bordering on Sacra- 
mento Valley between Eoseville and Folsom, or in the 
great valley itself, as far down, if you choose, as Sacra- 
mento City. 

vaiiey sec This can be done at a very moderate cost, by pur- 

tion. 

chasing or connecting with the ditches of the American 
Biver Company, reaching within ten miles of Sacra- 
mento, and commanding a region skirting the foot-hills 
for six miles along the south branch of Antelope Creek; 
and, in fact, every acre of land worth tilling, from the 
north bank of the American to the Central Pacific Kail- 
road. The height of the Keamer Ditch, above the 
American Kiver, opposite Wild Goose, is about 100 
feet. It would take probably 500 feet of pipe to turn 
the Wild Goose Ditch into the American Kiver Ditch. 

city supply. Using the American Kiver Company's Ditch, with its 
abundant summer supply, for systematic irrigation in 
the valley wherever rich lands are commanded by it, 
the investment could not be otherwise than safe. But 
the primary and chief advantage of possessing this 
property lies in the possibility of turning the ditch at 
any time into a conduit for clear water from your main 
ditch via Georgetown, Greenwood, and Wild Goose, to 
Sacramento City. 

pipe across A pipe from the left bank of the American, near 
Wild Goose Flat to the American Kiver Company's 
Ditch, on the right bank; the construction of a few 
large reservoirs for city supply, near the terminus of the 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 221 

American Company's Ditch, 150 or 200 feet above 
Sacramento; and ten to twelve miles of eighteen-inch 
or two feet pipe, would be the only preliminaries to en- 
able you to secure, at the proper time, the ever-grow- 
ing market of the Capital city. 

Your company being so situated, the supply of Sacra- 
mento City must, sooner or latter, fall into your hands, 
for the reason that it is clear water from the mountains 
you are able to furnish; and because you can undersell, 
and force out any system of city supply which involves 
the expenses of pumping. 

The practicability, policy, and economy of incorporat- 
ing this as a subordinate plan of operations into your 
general scheme, may be further deduced from parti- 
culars referred to under Power and Valley Market, Sub- 
division Y. 

8.— POLICY OF THE COMPANY IN KEGAED 
TO EXTENSION. 

In order to secure the water supply of Sacramento, it opportunity 
is only necessary to be ready to respond when the call 
shall come. Using the American Kiver or Valley sec- 
tion, as already constructed for irrigation, you have only 
to connect your pipe with Wild Goose Flat, and so with 
your Loon Lake ditches and reservoirs . 

After you have obtained a market at Sacramento, you 
can give the city the first chance. A new ditch, for the 
separate and special accommodation of the agricultural 
interest, can be dug at a time during the winter season 
when that interest would not suffer from interruption. 

In a similar manner, it should be the policv of the 

r J Rubicon. 

company to connect the Kubicon Kiver with Loon Lake 
Basin at such time as the further development of the 



222 



GEOEGETOWN DIVIDE. 



agricultural or mining market of the Georgetown divide 
may be prepared for it. 

The Kubicon basin is timbered in spots with sugar 
pine, spruce, fir, and tamarack, which could be sawn 
into flume lumber. Ten miles of ditching and fluming 
will connect the Eubicon with your present system. 



Will bear 
transporta- 
tion. 



Timber 
land. 



9.— MANUFACTURED PBODUCTS 
Will easily bear transportation to the valley, where 
the raw product is, and might for a century remain, 
worthless; for the simple reason that a ton of the raw 
material will bring from $20 to $50 in the market, while 
a ton of the manufactured product will command from 
$100 to $1,000. The margin of loss in transportation 
becomes proportionately insignificant. 

The lumber resources of the divide, outside of sugar 
pine, available at the present time, it is obvious can only 
be taken advantage of in this way. 

This is not a question, certainly, of working a placer, 
but of turning to the best account the resources and 
conditions of the situation, for years to come, with com- 
paratively insignificant outlays, and returns fair in a 
business sense, while possessing the element of certain- 
ty to a large degree. 

By purchasing valuable timber lands adjacent to falls 
in the ditches, or other points where the water would be 
caught up in a lower ditch, the Company can create 
valuable properties without any cost to themselves fur- 
ther than the outlay of $1.25 per acre. 

The primary advantage of pursuing such a course 
would be the cash realized ; the secondary and perma- 
nent one, the increased local agricultural demand for 
water, on a cash basis, that would spring up wherever 
men are employed, and families must reside. 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 223 

10.— POSSIBILITIES. 

Should there appear to be justification in the future Road. 
for the construction of a narrow gauge railroad to Pla- 
cerville, or a branch up Dutch Creek on Georgetown 
Divide, a matter not by any means beyond the bounds 
of possibility, the timber resources of Georgetown Di- 
vide will become valuable for lumbering in general. 

11.— YAEIOUS SUGGESTIONS 

I have not attempted to sum up, as a lawyer might do 
in his brief, from the "evidence " preceding this chap- 
ter, the entire business aspect of the case. Many prac- 
tical suggestions have occurred to me with force, which 
are omitted. It has been my aim to point out to the 
stockholders of the California Water Company what 
they have on Georgetown Divide. Knowing this per- 
haps better than heretofore, their own ideas will be 
good enough as to what they had better do with it. 

Signal telegraphs ought to be constructed, to supple- 
ment the existing short magnetic line. Sulphur ets ought 
to be separated in the sluices, saved and concentrated 
by the most approved methods. For this, you possess 
the necessary water power, and are under the most 
favorable conditions imaginable. In the metamorphic 
greenstones of the American mine, (at C, Fig. 12, p. 
45,) I found free gold, associated with the iron pyrites, 
in flakes and bunches plainly visible. From the man- 
ner of the formation of gold in veins, (see tabular ex- 
hibit, and Sub. IV.,) most of it must have been depos- 
ited in connection with iron sulphurets, metallic, prob- 
ably, but in a very finely divided condition. It is neces- 
sary, therefore, to separate the sulphurets, accompany- 



224 GEORGETOWN DIVIDE. 

ing any noteworthy deposit, and treat them by roast- 
ing and chlorination. 

How far auxiliary treatment by milling, concentra- 
tion or chlorination would pay, may be deduced from 
the table showing expenses of mining, etc. 

If rock containing 2 per cent, of sulphurets can be 
mined and milled with the aid of water for $1 to $2 per 
ton, a ton of sulphurets would cost $50 to 1100 for min- 
ing; $12.50 for concentrating, and $11 for chlorinating; 
making a total cost of $75 to $125 for working sulphur- 
ets worth (not less than) $200; or a clear profit of $75 to 
$125 per ton of sulphurets worked. 

This would be, from ten tons of sulphurets per day — 
or 500 tons of rock, a quantity easily excavated with one 
hydraulic head — a net yield of $750 to $1250 per day. 

If, in the above calculation, the item of mining and 
milling be placed as low as 30 cents per ton — a liberal 
allowance for hydraulic excavation in the seam diggings, 
including disintegration and ruder sortings — the result 
would be over $1500 per day profit. How much of the 
last named figure would have to be drawn upon to meet 
the ordinary item of crushing, would of course depend 
upon the nature of the rock. 

12.— INTEBEST AND DIVIDENDS. 

It has not been my duty specially to ascertain the 
sums actually invested by the present stockholders of 
the California Water Company, nor to speculate upon 
what various resources, when developed, may yield 
them in dollars per annum. 

These matters are essentially private, if the figures at- 
tainable are at all definite. I have shown that the 
possibilities, from such resources, are unlimited. The 
results must depend upon the degree of energy and 



PEACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS, 225 

executive talent that may be applied, with investments 
adapted to the conditions of the country. That a fair 
interest upon the investments already made, or immedi- 
ately contemplated, so far as I know them, mav be 
expected under ordinary good management, I believe 
no one carefully acquainting himself with the resources 
and facts herein set forth, will doubt. 



/3, 




AMERICAN RIVER BAS1K' 





ORCETOW DIVIDE, EL 

ONS OFTHKPUCERV1UE JSD 

HES. MINES AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF THE 

BY AJVIOS BC 

miu:s 



